I said, I’m pregnant ... please don’t kill me. Then he shot me with a crossbow
Mum relives horror that saw partner murdered
A MUM has told how she grappled with an intruder who murdered her partner with a crossbow then shot a bolt into her head when she was five months pregnant.
Laura Sugden begged for her life as Anthony Lawrence ran amok after breaking in via a shared loft linking their rented semi-detached homes.
Deranged Lawrence was lying in wait in revenge over a neighbours’ dispute. Laura, 30, found him in an upstairs bedroom after a date night with boyfriend Shane Gilmer.
In her first full interview, Laura says: “When I opened the bedroom door, I could see Tony and he had something in his hand. I thought at first it was a gun. I shouted to Shane, ‘Don’t come up, he’s got a gun’.”
Lawrence pushed Laura into the main bedroom, then shot Shane as he climbed the stairs.
Laura called 999 and hid her phone in her denim pregnancy dress.
She adds: “I was terrified. It was surreal. I kept thinking this isn’t happening. Then I heard Shane saying, ‘What the f*** is that?’ The next thing I heard him moaning from the hall.”
Lawrence dragged Shane into the room. He had been shot through the arm, the bolt embedding in his spine.
Laura asked Lawrence: “Is that going to kill him?”
He replied with a smirk: “Yes, and now I’m going to kill you too”.
DIZZY
Lawrence said the attack was in revenge for getting him evicted – something he only knew by using a listening device to eavesdrop through the wall for over a year. Begging for mercy, Laura said she was pregnant and cried: “We’ve got children.”
But Lawrence simply said, “Blah, blah, f ****** blah” before shooting her in the head, then leaving the room.
“Blood was gushing down my face and I felt dizzy. I heard Shane scream. He was pale and crying,” says Laura.
She managed to stand up and pull the bolt from her head – then squeezed Shane’s hand.
Lawrence returned with another crossbow bolt. Laura leapt up and threw herself at him. He straddled her on the floor and pushed the point into her neck, causing a wound so deep doctors could see her voice box.
Yet the 5ft 2in mum managed to shove stocky Lawrence off her and pin him down. He broke free and fled.
Shane told Laura to get help. “He was crying,” says Laura. “He was gasping for breath. He looked at me, the look someone gives you when they are going away for a long time, He told me, ‘Be strong, I love you’.” Those were his final words to her. Bloodied Laura dashed to neighbours to summon help. Meanwhile, Shane managed to call 999, fearing Lawrence had kidnapped Laura.
An inquest this month into his death in 2018 heard him tell the operator: “I love my children... Oh my God I really, really wanted this baby... I feel like I’m fading. I’ve lost so much blood.”
Paramedics were unable to enter the house in the hamlet of Southburn, East Riding, until armed Humberside Police made sure it was safe.
Laura believes Shane could have lived. But the
KILLER Anthony Lawrence inquest ruled delays were “inevitable” because of the remote location. Lawrence was found dead in a campervan two days later. Laura admits: “I only wish I had killed him myself.”
Remarkably, she managed to find solace in the birth of Ella, now two. Laura adds: “I have to be strong for Ella. The minute she was born something in my heart healed. She just looks exactly like her dad, so much like him in fact that it’s sometimes painful to look at her.
“I’ve told her Daddy is a star and she’ll sometimes talk about
WEAPON Crossbow used by killer
him, asking, ‘My Daddy loved me didn’t he’?” Laura, who also has daughter Isabelle, seven, is campaigning for tighter regulations around crossbows, which can be bought online for £150.
Lawrence, 55, had caused problems for a year by playing loud music and growing cannabis. He once waved an axe and threatened to kill Shane. The couple got landlords to visit and they agreed to evict him. Despite her grief Laura knows Shane, 30, would have
LOFT Linked homes wanted her to be happy and has been dating someone “on and off” for a year. She adds sadly: “It’s hard for him because I’m still in love with Shane.
“I can’t imagine the grieving ever comes to an end.”
Of Shane, she adds: “We were madly in love, worked at the same place and were hardly ever apart. Friends used to tease us because we were so in love. The honeymoon period never went away.”
Shane was crying...he told me ‘be strong, I love you...’ LAURA SUGDEN ON HER PARTNER’S FINAL WORDS