I saw my stepdad shoot Mum dead.. I feared he'd kill me too, but I refused to let him ruin my life
TEEN’S BRAVE STAND AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
IT was the horrific moment that will play back in Georgia Hooper’s mind for the rest of her life. Aged just 14, she was inches away when her mum was gunned down in her car, shot twice through the windscreen at point-blank range by her violent ex.
Mum Cheryl, 51, had suffered years of abuse at the hands of husband Andrew Hooper and six weeks earlier had walked out on him.
But he had secretly tracked her car and suddenly appeared, wielding a double-barrelled shotgun, as mother and daughter arrived home.
He fired both barrels, killing Cheryl instantly. Hooper later shot himself in the face but survived and Georgia feared he would be coming for her.
The devastating experience gave Georgia flashbacks, insomnia and post-traumatic stress. Yet she has also taken strength from the memory of her mother’s immense bravery.
Amazingly, she returned to school just two days after the murder. And this year, after studying with more determination than ever, she passed her eight GCSEs – including grade sevens in music, physics and English.
She now wants a career in the police or law to help stop other women suffering the domestic abuse that ended her mother’s life.
Showing wisdom beyond her years, Georgia says: “Living with a narcissist and psychopath gives you a better advantage of spotting them and knowing how to expose them. I want to make a difference. If I can succeed at this, it means that man hasn’t won.
“I’ve always been referred to as a witness or a victim, but I’m neither.
“I’m a bright young woman with a life of my own and I refused to be defined by this hate crime.”
When Cheryl started a relationship with 6ft, 18st farmer Hooper, from Sutton, Shrops, Georgia hoped he might become the father figure she had always craved.
Georgia’s own dad had left when she was very young. She had just turned seven when Cheryl met Andrew, who they called Jack. But she says even then his behaviour could quickly change.
Georgia explains: “At times he could be charming, taking us round his farm, then making a log fire and cooking roast chicken, but on other occasions he could be ruthlessly manipulative. He used to give us the silent treatment, often not speaking for days.
“Mum would be in agonies trying to work out what she’d said or done. He got a kick out of twisting us round his finger.” Georgia asked him if he would ever love her and think of her as a daughter. He said he would when he and Cheryl got married but that was a lie.
Af ter the 2016 wedding, when Georgia was 12, she asked him again and he coldly replied: “We don’t share any DNA.” Two weeks after tying the knot the nightly rows, punctuated by icy silences, started.
Georgia says: “Mum was desperate to make the marriage work and find the good in him. She was convinced she could change him.” But watching from the shadows, Georgia knew he wouldn’t change. Her adolescence was spent waiting for the next explosive row to reduce her mum to a wreck.
She recalls: “One night he came home from the pub drunk and smashed up the television.
“Jack’s daughter from his first marriage was visiting and she begged Mum to leave. He had been given a suspended sentence in 2004 after he broke into his first wife’s home and threatened to kill her, so she knew what he was capable of.
“We bundled a few belongings into a bag and moved in with my nan and grandad, Rita, 77, and Tony, 79, in Newport.” It was Georgia who first suspected he was stalking them.
She says: “I knew he wouldn’t let her go. He was the ultimate narcissist and no way would he allow a woman to leave him. I saw his car outside the house at night.”
Mum and daughter moved to a rented semi-detached home nearby and soon after Hooper turned up and took her car, only to return it later. He had secretly fitted a tracker.
In January 2018, Cheryl went to the pub with friends while Georgia stayed at mates. But Hooper burst into the pub at 10.30pm and caused a scene.
Cheryl told Georgia: “He’s going mad, will you call him?” Showing extraordinary bravery she called him but cannily taped the conversation.
She says: “I’d had seven years of his abuse by then, so I finally got a backbone and stood up to him. I told him Mum had given him too many chances and if he hadn’t treated us so badly we wouldn’t have left.” Cheryl picked up Georgia and drove home.
Georgia recalls: “As we pulled up in the drive at about 11.15pm, a car pulled up behind us and I saw the silhouette of a man get out, carrying what I thought was a spade. Mum was screaming: ‘ Oh God, he’s here.’ Mum couldn’t have moved the car even if she had tried. He had blocked us in, and she was paralysed with fear.”
“I got out of the car and ran around to the driver’s side. Fumbling with my phone I tried to dial 999 but it was too late. I heard a crack, then another.
“The glass was shattered and Mum’s body was slumped over into the passenger seat where I had been sitting moments before. I just knew she was dead. No one could have survived being shot at point blank range.”
Georgia chased after Hooper begging him to tell her why, but he walked to his car, gunned the engine and sped off. She took her mum’s pulse “but her body was cold and motionless. She was gone”.
Georgia was taken to the police
I’m pleased he has the rest of his miserable life to rot in a prison cell
GEORGIA HOOPER ON FATE OF MUM’S KILLER
station and insisted on giving her statement that night.
The next day she learnt Hooper had hot himself in the face but survived. Two days later Georgia was back at chool. She says: “I craved normality nd being with my friends, otherwise knew my grief would overwhelm me.” Despite only sleeping two hours a ight, Georgia was in class every day. She says: “I became convinced he’d ome back to finish the job off and kill me. Every night I stood at the window, taring into the dark, watching for is face.” Georgia had post-traumatic stress but despite her grief and nervous exhaustion, she struggled on, working hard to finish her GCSEs. She says: “He had already destroyed Mum’s life, he wasn’t going to destroy mine.” She showed the same determination at Hooper’s murder trial in June 2019 at Birmingham crown court when she gave evidence without a screen. She says: “I allowed myself to look at him only once. His face was withered and pathetic.”
Her recording of their last conversation was played to a hushed court. Hooper, then 46, was sentenced to life, with a minimum of 31 years in jail. “I felt such relief to learn that he will be an old man when he is finally released. I’m happy he didn’t die. Now he has the rest of his miserable life to rot in a prison cell. Mum had lots of funny sayings. She used to say: ‘It’s not about being glass half full or glass half empty. You should just be thankful to have a glass.’ It’s how I try to live my life. I miss her every day.”
Georgia is now an ambassador for domestic violence charities such as Save Lives and the NSPCC.
Last September she addressed more than 200 people at Stand up to Domestic Abuse in Newport, Shrops.
She adds: “Children trapped in violent relationships have no choice, they cannot simply up and leave.
“For the first time in my life I have control. I also have a voice and I will never stop using it to help children who are trapped and suffering.”
The freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse helpline is on 0808 2000 247
Every night I stood at the window starring into the dark for his face
GEORGIA A HOOPER FEARED STEPDA D WOULD KILL HER