A woman whose partner was killed in a crossbow attack – and was herself shot while pregnant – has called for tougher laws in the wake of the murders of BBC racing commentator John Hunt’s wife and two daughters.
Laura Sugden was 20 weeks into her pregnancy when she and her boyfriend Shane Gilmer were attacked by a crossbow-wielding assailant at their family home in east Yorkshire in January 2018. Mr Gilmer, 30, was fatally wounded in the incident, with Ms Sugden, 34, still recalling the horror of him dying on their landing.
The mother-of-two miraculously survived the assault despite being shot in the head. The couple’s baby also survived, and Ella is now six years old but is growing up without her father.
Since the tragedy, she has become a campaigner against crossbows, and has spoken out after the conviction of the man who killed the BBC commentator’s loved ones. Kyle Clifford pleaded guilty to murdering Mr Hunt’s wife, Carol, and their two daughters, Louise and Hannah, at their family home last summer. Clifford, 26, has denied one count of rape and is set to stand trial for this charge in March.
“It made me so sad because I can put myself in those women’s [shoes] – when they were in that situation, when someone is with that in front of them, it’s the scariest thing ever,” Ms Sugden told The Independent. “It made me extremely angry and frustrated ... when I’m trying to do something preventing absolute morons getting their hands on something like that and it’s still happening.”
The suspected killer in Ms Sugden’s case, 55-year-old Anthony Lawrence, lived in the semi-detached house next door to her and was found dead two days after the attack following a police manhunt.
Ms Sugden – who is now a customer service assistant but was working for the local council at the time, along with Mr Gilmer – said tensions had escalated between the neighbours in the year leading up to the assault, over noise and the strong smell of cannabis coming from Lawrence’s property.
On one occasion, exactly a year before the attack, on 12 January 2017, Lawrence threatened her and Mr Gilmer with an axe and told the pair he would kill them, she said.
Ms Sugden reported this incident as well as the smell to Humberside Police, but no action was taken by the force. Humberside Police said the incidents were logged and believed to be isolated – and claimed that it was Mr Gilmer who did not want to escalate the situation, which is strongly disputed by Ms Sugden.
When Lawrence was subsequently evicted from his property, Ms Sugden believes that he blamed the couple.
A month after being served his notice, Ms Sugden said she and Mr Gilmer were shot by Lawrence, who was lying in wait armed with two crossbows when the pair arrived home on the night of 12 January 2018.
She said she managed to run to a neighbouring property to get help, before hearing the attacker speed off in a vehicle, with emergency services arriving a short time later.
Mr Gilmer suffered a cardiac arrest at hospital after losing a huge amount of blood and died in the early hours of 13 January.
That morning, Ms Sugden had a scan and found out that her baby had survived.
“I couldn’t think of anything but Shane,” she said. “But her heart was beating – she was an absolute miracle.”
Describing her daughter now as “just like her dad”, Ms Sugden said: “Being pregnant with Ella made me have to carry on. Had I not been pregnant, I don’t think I would’ve been here today. She absolutely saved my life.”
After her ordeal, Ms Sugden launched the Shane’s Law campaign in 2021, which included a petition that closed with 42,000 signatures, calling for people who want to buy a crossbow to go through similar criminal record and mental health checks to those required for shotgun sales.
She also recently responded to the government’s call for evidence in its review of the weapons, with the Home Office telling The Independent it will be publishing its findings soon.
There is currently no registration system for owning a crossbow, no requirement for a licence, and they appear to be readily available to buy online.
However, it is illegal for anyone under 18 to buy or own one, and anyone carrying a crossbow in public without a reasonable excuse can face up to four years in prison.
The senior coroner who presided over Mr Gilmer’s inquest, Professor Paul Marks, issued a prevention of future deaths report to the Conservative government at the time in 2021, calling for a review of legislation regarding the sale, possession and licensing of crossbows.
The previous government looked at bringing in firearms licensing-style rules in the wake of an attempt to kill Queen Elizabeth II with a crossbow on Christmas Day 2021.
Following the Bushey murders, the Home Office said the home secretary Yvette Cooper was urgently considering whether tougher crossbow laws were needed.
Detective Chief Inspector Jayne Goodens, from Humberside Police’s Major Crime Team, said a “full and thorough investigation” was carried out after Mr Gilmer was killed, and a referral was made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
She said: “The IOPC conducted an independent investigation, and they concluded that the reports made were handled appropriately, within procedure, and in line with local and national policy with no indication that any Humberside Police officer behaved in a manner justifying the bringing of disciplinary proceedings.”
She added: “No concerns were raised by the coroner in respect of the force’s handling of the reports made and the force was not found to be a contributing factor in Shane’s death.”
