Crossbow killer executed my beloved partner in cold blood – we must crack down on sick weapons after yet another tragedy

WHEN I heard that the wife and two daughters of BBC racing commentator John Hunt had been killed in a crossbow attack, I felt a gut punch in my stomach.

I know the pain, the shock, the horror he faces because I was five months pregnant when my neighbour broke into my house through a shared attic and shot me and my partner Shane Gilmer with one of these barbaric weapons.

Glen Minikin

Laura Sugden was five months pregnant when she was shot in the neck and head by her neighbour with a crossbow. Pictured with her daughter, Ella Faith Gilmer[/caption]

Ben Lack

Forensic officers at the scene of Shane’s murder[/caption]

Ben Lack

The crossbow used by killer Anthony Lawrence[/caption]

I survived. Shane did not.

He never got to meet his beautiful daughter, Ella Faith, who is now six, and the happy future I’d envisaged for us evaporated on that fateful night in January 2018.

I will never forget Shane’s last moments with me as he lay immobilised, pinned by a blot that stapled his forearm to his abdomen.

He was struggling badly and told me: “If you don’t keep you and the baby safe, I’ll never forgive you.”

I had been shot in the head and neck and was also losing blood. I’ve no idea how I was able to get out the back door and burst running into the dark night for help.

At Shane’s inquest I heard he’d managed to call 999 and, as he waited for help, he told the operator how much he wanted our baby.

Our attacker, neighbour Anthony Lawrence, had been listening to our conversations for a year after hammering a hole through our joint attic. He later killed himself.

Since Shane’s death I’ve lived every day with the memories of that night and I’ve campaigned for change to get crossbows regulated.

Despite the ferocity of these weapons there are NO laws around them. Anyone over the age of 18 can purchase one.

I launched a petition to tighten up ownership, which attracted more than 42,000 signatures, and in February this year the Government launched a ‘call for evidence’ to ask anyone with a vested interest in crossbows to submit their thoughts on tighter laws around them.

This sadly comes too late for the family of John Hunt.

Attacks that result in deaths are rare but, since the Government started probing the issue, I’ve heard from lots of families whose loved ones were injured by crossbows.

In my opinion, one person losing their life in this horrible way is enough for change, let alone three people in one awful attack.

I also know how accessible crossbows are. I’ve heard from people who told me their teenagers ordered them online and were handed them at the front door without so much as an age identification check.

It’s terrifying to think that young people or anyone with a mental health problem, who might be at that point in their life where they think about hurting someone or themselves, can easily purchase one.

Our laws are woefully inadequate at the moment and crossbows can be bought for as little as £100 online

I have been fighting for a long time in the hope nobody would suffer like my family has, so you can imagine the utter despair I felt reading about the deaths of Carol Hunt, 61, and her daughters Hannah, 28, and Louise, 25.

The first time I heard about the attack I was working at my desk at the local authority when my phone lit up. When I read about what happened, I was heartbroken.

I felt such a mixture of emotions; thinking about that night, about Ella Faith growing up without her dad, about how easy it is to get a crossbow.

Things like this are unimaginable when you read about them, but to be that person it actually happened to it is indescribable. There are times that night plays like a video over and over through my mind.

I still have nightmares and I have taken all the doors off my house in East Yorkshire so I can see into the hallway. It helps me cope.

I lost Shane but John has lost his whole family and I know the journey he’s about to go on.

It’s just so terribly sad it’s happened again and I can’t help but wonder had #Shaneslaw been rushed through would the outcome have been different?

I don’t know. What I do know is that it’s time to change the law on crossbow ownership. Now.

I still have nightmares and I have taken all the doors off my house in East Yorkshire so I can see into the hallway

We need police and medical checks to make sure that anyone who wants to obtain one is fit to have one and we know whose hands they are in. Like firearms they should be kept in a safe place away from children too.

I’m going to keep pushing until the law changes. Something has to be done now. I know people will say the number of crossbow deaths are low, but the injuries these things can cause are horrific.

Our laws are woefully inadequate at the moment and crossbows can be bought for as little as £100 online.

They are powerful and life-endangering weapons that should require the same checks as guns because the damage they can cause is beyond belief.

Shane’s death and the death of three innocent women this week is sadly proof of that

As told to Grace Macaskill.

PA

Laura has tirelessly campaigned for stricter laws around crossbow ownership[/caption]

Ben Lack

The wall killer Lawrence dismantled to break in[/caption]