Anger at police over murders

Photo / Thinkstock

A mother and daughter killed yesterday could have been saved by police, angry neighbours claimed as a double murder inquiry was started.

Christine Chambers, 38, and her 2-year-old daughter Shania, died at home in Braintree, Essex, after a stand-off with police.

Chambers's 10-year-old daughter Chelsea, from another relationship, managed to escape and alert the emergency services after her mother begged her to run.

A 50-year-old man, named as the toddler's father David Oakes, was under guard in hospital with a gunshot wound.

After police led him away from the house, an angry neighbour shouted at officers: "You knew this was going to happen, you could have stopped it."

Assistant Chief Constable Gary Beautridge conceded that a "number of incidents" involving the suspect and Chambers had been reported to Essex police over a period of two years.

The force said it had contacted the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which had already sent investigators.

The couple were understood to be due to attend a family court hearing yesterday at Chelmsford County Court.

Officers were called to the address and spent some time trying to negotiate with the gunman through the letterbox.

Ian Flitt, 50, said his daughter with Chambers, Chelsea, had run out of the house earlier and arrived at his home nearby in a distraught state, screaming: "He has gone mad with a gun". The schoolgirl told her father that her mother had urged her to "run, save yourself".

Police stormed the house but did not fire. They found the bodies of both mother and daughter and recovered a shotgun.

Neighbours described Chambers as out-going and friendly who was devoted to her "lovely little girl".

But one revealed: "She had called the police before on several occasions and there had been a lot of problems in the past.

"We knew she was worried about what might happen to her and it seemed she was living in fear."

- Independent