Review finds GPs must be more alert to controlling behaviour

GPS MUST be “more alert” to signs of controlling and coercive behaviour after a man killed his wife and daughter before turning the gun on himself, a review has concluded.

Lance Hart shot his wife of 26 years, Claire, inset, in July 2016, days after she decided to leave him, before turning the shotgun on his 19-yearold daughter Charlotte, inset.

A Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) conducted by Lincolnshire County Council has recommended frontline practitioners should ask more overtly about domestic abuse.

It said: “Frontline practitioners in particular need to be more alert to the signs and symptoms of these behaviours and be able to highlight possible triggers and subtle inferences and make appropriate referrals.” Mrs Hart, 50, and Charlotte had been subjected to years of mental abuse before they were shot by Hart near the Castle Sports Complex in Spalding, Lincolnshire.

Despite it being described as a “tragedy nobody could foresee”, the council said the behaviour of 57-year-old Hart was “endemic” and “was not known by professionals”.

To “gain a wider public understanding” of domestic abuse, the DHR also recommended the local safeguarding children’s board should make requests to schools about running “awareness sessions”.

Although recommendations were made by the DHR, the review did find there were no specific failings leading up to the deaths. Two days after the shootings, Mrs Hart’s sons Luke and Ryan were in Spalding police station when they saw a poster about domestic abuse which “described our father in perfect detail”.

Ryan has previously said: “Throughout our entire lives, the abuse became normalised.

“It was only when we saw that poster that we realised he was the perfect example of an abuser.”