Then dad kills himself
CAPTAIN’S CON ROLE
A DAD shot dead his wife and daughter yesterday before turning the gun on himself, police believe.
Lance Hart confronted the pair in a leisure centre car park at 9am, armed with a shotgun.
He is believed to have blasted his wife Claire, 50, and daughter Charlotte, 19.
Swimmers and staff inside The Castle Leisure Centre at Spalding, Lincs, heard the shots and dialled 999. The three bodies were found in pools of blood outside.
Hart, 57, who worked for a firm of builders’ merchants, died instantly. Witnesses and medics could not revive the women. ® Detectives raided the family’s £280,000 four-bedroom home three miles away in Moulton, which was for sale. One neighbour said a sale was going through after the couple recently separated.
A neighbour, who gave his name as Peter, described Hart as “the nicest guy you could ever meet”. He added: “He was very inoffensive. I don’t now how anyone could do anything like this.’’
Charlotte’s brothers Luke, 26, and Ryan, 25, were understood to be with relatives at the time.
Part of the town was cordoned off, nearby schools were placed on lockdown and businesses were ordered to bolt their doors as police, paramedics and an air ambulance rushed to the scene of the shootings.
A builder who battled to save Morrisons shop worker Claire and midwifery student Charlotte said: “I ran across the car park, jumped over the fence and went to help.
“There was only me and another lad from the swimming pool trying to help. There were three people injured. It looked like the man had done the other two and done away with himself.”
Police were last night treating it as a double murder and suicide.
A spokesman for the Lincolnshire force said: “We are not looking for anyone else. There is no indication that this is a terrorist-related incident and no shots have been fired by police.’’ ® 48, is accused of making £7,310 from 13 players and staff by selling them posh Christmas hampers which never arrived.
Ackerman then used bank details to rob their accounts of £54,730, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.
Ackerman, of Hillcroft, Essex, denies all the charges. The trial continues.