Mary Shipstone's Mother Describes Horror as 7-Year-Old Daughter was Shot in the Head

Lyndsey Shipstone has spoken of her anguish and despair as she watched her estranged partner shoot and kill her seven-year-old daughter Mary.

Mary Shipstone, was attacked by her father Yasser Alromisse outside her home in Spring Hill, in Northiam, near Rye, East Sussex, on 11 September after she returned from school.

Alromisse then killed himself outside the house in Northiam, near Rye, on September 11 .

Egyptian born, Alromisse was caught in a bitter custody battle with his estranged wife over their daughter.

Mary died in hospital on 12 September, just seven days before her eighth birthday.

Ms Shipstone described the tragic scene as she swept her fatally wounded daughter up in her arms and rushed her to a neighbour's home in a vain attempt to revive her.

"It was just an ordinary day. Mary had come home from school. She was holding her violin. We walked to the house. There was nothing extraordinary. We'd just picked up one of the local cats that waited for her.

"It waited for her every day when she came home from school. We were holding her and just walking down the path and were going to give her some food, like we did every day. And as soon as I put the front door key in there was a terrible bang behind me and I turned round and Mary was on the ground.

"I saw her father with the gun in his hand pointing at Mary's head and he fired a second time, and then he retreated into the car and I just dropped down to Mary and dragged her round the front of the house away from the car. And I was screaming for help and I was telling neighbours who were calling the police that he had a gun and Mary had been shot. And I realised I had to get her away."

Despite the horror, she said it was a 'great comfort' to be with her daughter in her final moments.

As she now attempts to come to terms with the brutal killing of her daughter, Ms Shipstone said she was 'taking each day as it comes' but could not comprehend Alromisse's motivation.

Ms Shipstone said: "'You can't describe the horror that I've felt losing my precious daughter. I'd hoped that she would survive, even if she'd been disabled I would've cared for her for the rest of her life. But it wasn't to be."

She revealed that her daughter has given the gift of life to five other children, including two babies, after donating her organs.

"It was important to allow Mary to make that gift of her organs because she was such a healthy girl. She'd never been sick in that way. I thought it would be a way of Mary living on in these children in some small way. It was a great comfort to know that other children would survive through losing Mary."

A memorial fund has been set up to remember the 'lively, intelligent' Mary whose eighth birthday was marked last week by her family.