A MOTHER allegedly subjected to a brutal and deadly attack told her daughter to flee their home through a window.
David Oakes, 50, denies shooting dead his former partner, Christine Chambers, 38, and her two-year-old daughter, Shania, at their home in Bartram Avenue, Braintree, last June.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard video evidence from Chrissie’s 11-year-old daughter, who was also in the house at the time of the attack.
The youngster, who was ten at the time, testified she escaped via a first-floor window, after she heard Oakes threaten to mutilate her mother.
In a video interview, recorded two days after the incident the court heard the girl say: “He let himself in to the house with a key and had a bag of weapons.
“He came in when we were about to go to sleep and mummy said, ‘Get out of my house’.
“We were all in mummy’s bed because we had been watching a DVD together.
“Dave came in, turned on the light and said, ‘You know why I am here’, but mummy said ‘No I don’t’.”
The court heard Oakes brought an axe and a petrol can to the house, along with the gun. He then loaded the weapon.
The youngster, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said Oakes threatened to burn down the house and forced her mother to cut off bits of her hair.
She said: “Mummy was crying, but he did not even shed a tear.
“He made her kiss and hug him. He said ‘I want you to come back’. He made her say, ‘I love you’, but said he did not believe her.
“Mummy said she was sorry and would do anything.”
The girl said she pleaded with Oakes not to harm her sister or her mother.
She said he replied, “Yeah, whatever.”
The 11-year-old added: “Me and my sister were sent to her room.
“Shania went to sleep, but I couldn’t. I went to my own room and fake cried so mummy would come to me.
“She came up. Her eye was purple and swollen and she was bleeding.
“She whispered for me to jump out of the window before anything bad happened.
“Before I went, I ran downstairs and Dave threw a gun at my back.”
The girl told the court Oakes had taken their mobile phones so they couldn’t call for help.
She said Oakes told her mother if she fought back, he would kill her daughters.
Oakes, of Steeple Bay caravan park, Canney Road, Steeple, near Maldon, was not in court to see the girl give evidence. The court was told he was feeling unwell.
The trial continues.
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