Essex police told of harassment weeks before mother and toddler shot dead - The Guardian

A mother shot dead with her toddler daughter had reported to police that she was being "pestered and harassed" by the suspected gunman less than two weeks before she was killed.

Christine Chambers, 38, contacted officers on 27 May in the latest of a number of calls to Essex police over two years reporting incidents concerning the man suspected of the double murders, named locally as David Oakes, 50.

Details of her last complaint were made public by the Independent Police Complaints Commission as it launched a formal investigation into the case. The bodies of Chambers and two-year-old Shania were found following a stand-off between police and the gunman inside their home in Bartram Avenue, Braintree in the early hours of Monday.

The suspect, a former partner of Chambers and father of Shania who has not been formally named, is currently under police guard at a nearby hospital after undergoing treatment for injuries.

The police watchdog said it was "still collating" previous contact between Chambers and police as the father of her 10-year-old daughter, Chelsea, who escaped from the house, said he had "begged" police to enter the house immediately before the killings. Chelsea had managed to get out of a back window and fled at 3am to her father Ian Flitt, half a mile away, telling him Oakes had a gun, said Flitt.

"The police had been told for the past two weeks that he has been making threats and they were not doing nothing about it. After Chelsea came here and told me what had happened, I phoned police and said he is not a bluffer – I can't tell you your job but I am telling you now, if you try to negotiate with him, it is not going to work," he said. He added: "Police called me from the scene two hours after I phoned them and said 'would Chelsea be lying?'. "I told them, of course she is not lying – you needed to get in there – he is in there and is torturing her."He said of Oakes: "He was clued up, he had a firearm – I am so angry, this is unbelievable. It could have been totally avoided."

"I totally hold Essex police responsible – not any individual, but I was begging them to get into that house. They need to be investigated for what happened there."

Police were called to a firearms incident at the house at 3am on Monday. Neighbours have spoken of seeing officers attempting to negotiate with the gunman through the letterbox before shots were heard at around 4.45am.

It is understood Chambers and Oakes were involved in a custody dispute over Shania, and had been due to attend a family proceedings hearing at Chelmsford County Court hours after the murders.

The IPCC said Chambers had reported she was being "pestered and harassed". Commissioner Rachel Cerfontyne said: "Nobody could fail to have been shocked by what happened in Braintree yesterday and my thoughts are with Christine and Shania's family. Our independent investigation will focus on the previous reports to police and how they responded.

"At this stage, it is too early to say whether police responded appropriately to each incident and this is something that will take time to establish, but we will make our findings public as soon as we are able."

Flowers and cuddly toys have been left as tributes outside the house where the shootings took place.