THIS is the gunman accused of killing his ex-partner and their two-year-old child over a bitter custody battle. David Oakes allegedly shot cowering former lover Chrissie Chambers, 38, and daughter Shania in the head at point blank range.The unemployed builder then tried to kill himself but failed – instead blasting off the front of his face when the gun’s powerful kick-back skewed the barrel.
Oakes, who had the sound of a gun firing as his mobile phone ring tone, remains under police guard in hospital. Miss Chambers’ daughter Chelsea, ten, escaped by climbing through her bedroom window seconds before her mother and half-sister were executed at their home in Braintree, Essex.
The mother told police she was being 'pestered and harassed' by her ex-boyfriend just a fortnight before she and her two-year-old daughter were killed, the police watchdog revealed today.
Chrissie Chambers, 38, made a formal statement to officers last week about David Oakes’ repeated threats to kill her during a bitter row over access to their daughter.
Chrissie's son Guy Flitt, 11, claimed that Oakes repeatedly attacked him and his sister Chelsea while they were in his care. Guy, who said he moved to live with his father, Ian Flitt, 50, to avoid the abuse he was receiving from Oakes, said,
'I don't know what I would do if Chelsea didn't jump out. I just think she's so brave.
'She [Chrissie] was always putting us first and she basically broke up with Dave because of me...He used to bully me too and Chelsea.'
Chrissie's former partner Ian Flitt described his despair when Chelsea ran to his house at 3am and banged on the window.
'She told me, "He's standing there with a shotgun." She said the last thing he stuck this gun in his mouth and was telling Christine to pull the trigger but she said, "I'm not that kind of person."
'She just had one little moment to tell Chelsea to "get away, save yourself".' Flitt blames officers for failing to react fast enough.
'I can't hate anyone more than I hate him, he's taken their mother. Last time I spoke to Chelsea she was trying to work it out in her head,' he said.
Neighbours told how the children's mother suffered the humiliation and pain of being beaten in the street by Oakes who, they claimed had previously also threatened her daughter.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission yesterday confirmed that it was investigating whether police officers had handled the case properly, in the months leading up to the double killings.
The terrified mother had handed police 100 menacing text messages from her ex just days before she was gunned down at home. Nothing was done, however, and Miss Chambers and toddler Shania were killed, while Shania's half-sister Chelsea was forced to flee the house through a window.
The police watchdog said it was 'still collating' previous contact between Ms Chambers and officers as formal investigations were launched. In her last statement to police, Ms Chambers reported that she was being 'pestered and harassed', the IPCC said.
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.
'We have to be very mindful that there is a double murder inquiry under way and we therefore need to be cautious about the information we make public at this stage so as not to interfere with that ongoing investigation.
'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.'
The final terrifying moments of Ms Chambers' life were revealed as it emerged that the killer had threatened the whole family with a shotgun. He put the weapon in Chelsea's mouth but did not pull the trigger, giving her the chance to flee on to a flat roof, before running to her father's house and raising the alarm.
Her mother had urged the ten-year-old to ‘run, run, save yourself while you can’.
Minutes later both Ms Chambers and Shania were dead. Last night an inquiry was launched by the Independent Police Complaints Commission after it emerged that officers had been called to the house a number of times over the past two years.
It was also claimed that Miss Chambers' ex boyfriend was subjected to a non-molestation order that prevented him from coming within 100 yards of her. Stuart Flitt, 26, who is a half brother to Chelsea, said police had been given warning after warning.
‘The last time she made a statement was on Thursday – she was making statements to the police all week,’ he said.
‘She gave police over 100 text messages but they never took her seriously.
‘These texts threatened to kill her – I had been staying round there for her own safety.’
A close friend of the family said: ‘The police said to her "We cannot do anything until something happens to you”. She was scared – she sobbed her heart out to me on Friday. This should not have happened.
‘The police were in the wrong and they knew about this weeks ago.’
An unemployed man was under police guard in hospital last night with non life-threatening injuries after allegedly turning the gun on himself at the end of a two-hour stand-off at the semi-detached house in Braintree, Essex.
Chelsea’s father, Ian Flitt, said he was woken in the early hours of Monday by Chelsea who was banging on his door. The 50-year-old said: ‘She started screaming “He is there at the house with a gun” and ‘He has put it into Chrissie’s mouth”.’
Yesterday, Miss Chamber's heartbroken family thanked well-wishers on an Facebook tribute site and said they were planning a funeral to remember the pair.
Tiffany Cannock, who is engaged to Miss Chamber's brother Dean, said: 'Christine's mum and Shania's nan Jean has asked me to say everyone is welcome the funeral!!
'Don't know wen and where but jus requests wen it does happen the dresscode is black with a flash of pink for shania!!!
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