A man blasted his partner and their two young children to death with a shotgun was a ‘loving father’ who showed no signs of the inner turmoil that would lead to the tragedy, an inquest heard today.
Robert Needham, 42, shot his daughter Ava, four, in the head and his two-year-old daughter Lexi in the chest during the first Covid lockdown in 2020.
He also shot his fiancee Kelly Fitzgibbons, 40, in the head and neck at their £600,000 home in West Sussex.
Mr Needham is then believed to have turned the gun on himself and shot himself in the head.
All four were found dead at the detached property in the quiet village of Woodmancote on Sunday evening, March 29 2020 – just a week after lockdown was imposed.
Just a week before the shootings, Mr Needham bought a semi-automatic shotgun from a registered firearms dealer telling him he needed it to shoot pigeons.
His two girls, who were described as ‘angelic’ and ‘mischievous’ by family members, were found lying side by side on the double bed in…