This crime is so sickening that it's easy to lose focus of the key issues.
Dad DAVID OAKES showed all the tendencies we see in the abusive fathers who pursue custody. Wanting to "win" custody is just an extension of their violent and domineering behavior, their obsession with "punishing" the woman for leaving his sorry @$$. It's basically just a form of domestic violence by proxy.
Notice that this 2-year-old child that he presumably wanted so badly meant nothing to him. What he wanted was total control: either child custody or shooting a 2-year-old girl point-blank through the head accomplished the same goal. Either way traumatizes and destroys the mother.
And notice that this piece of sh** basically tortured these two before killing them. Yea, some loving family man this one. And yet the courts indulge their endless crap and allow these guys to commit these crimes instead of locking them up.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2131626/David-Oakes-forced-Christine-Chambers-strip-shooting-daughter-Shania-2.html
Father 'forced his ex-partner to strip and cut her hair before shooting her and daughter, 2, dead'... then turned gun on himself but survived single shot David Oakes 'shot Christine Chambers and Shania at point-blank range'
Beforehand, builder allegedly said: 'If I can’t have you, then no-one can'
Trial is told he forced Miss Chambers to take off her clothes and cut clumps from her hair
Former bouncer turned gun on himself, but survived single blast to his face
Miss Chambers's other daughter raised the alarm after escaping from house
By Simon Tomlinson and John Stevens
PUBLISHED: 11:06 EST, 18 April 2012 | UPDATED: 06:03 EST, 19 April 2012
A father fuelled by jealousy shot his former partner and their two-year-old daughter hours
before they were due to go to court over custody of the child, a jury was told.
David Oakes, 50, subjected Christine Chambers to a three-hour ‘degrading assault’ in which he forced her to strip and cut out clumps of her own hair after telling her ‘If I can’t have you, then no one can’, the court heard.
The former bouncer killed Miss Chambers, 38, and two-year-old Shania before he turned the gun on himself but survived a blast to his face, Chelmsford Crown Court was told.
Miss Chambers’ other daughter, who was ten and also in the house in Braintree, Essex, ran for help after fleeing from a window.
Orlando Pownall QC, prosecuting, said: ‘Fuelled by jealousy, frustrated by the fact his relationship with Christine Chambers was over and that he would only, in the future, have limited access to Shania, deemed that he would kill them and kill himself.’
Miss Chambers had been at home watching television with her daughters at around midnight on June 5 when Oakes arrived with a double-barrelled shotgun and let himself in with a key he had kept, the jury heard. He also brought a blue holdall carrying an axe, a bottle of petrol, a pair of scissors and shotgun cartridges, it heard.
He allegedly hit Miss Chambers, made her take off her top and cut off clumps of her own hair.
The older daughter, who cannot be named, tried to use her mobile phone but Oakes took it and smashed it as well as her mother’s. In her evidence she said Oakes forced her mother to kiss him and say she loved him.
Police heard several gunshots and upon arriving found Shania, who had been shot in the head, and her mother, who had been shot three times. Neither could be resuscitated.
The couple, who met in 2005, had four children and split in April last year. They were involved
in legal proceedings over who Shania would live with and had been due at a hearing on June 6.
Mr Pownall described Oakes as ‘violent and domineering’, while Miss Chambers, although not blameless in their arguments, was a ‘doting mother’.
Mr Pownall said: 'Over a sustained period of time, Mr Oakes subjected Christine Chambers to degrading assaults, made her take off her upper garments and cut clumps from her hair.'
Miss Chambers bravely encouraged her older daughter to flee the house and she managed to escape through a first-floor window onto a flat roof above the kitchen before running to her father’s house about 500 metres away.
Police were called to the scene, but when they entered the house it was too late to save mother or daughter.
Mr Pownall described how officers were confronted by a horrific scene -
Shania was found dead on the landing and had been shot at 'point-blank range'.
He said: 'She had suffered dreadful injuries and was beyond resuscitation'.
The jury heard how Christine Chambers was discovered on the floor in the bedroom.
She had been shot at close range with a shotgun and suffered horrific injuries to her left thigh, right knee and along her right side and there was nothing that could be done to save her.
Forensic experts concluded that seven shots were fired, three at Miss Chambers, one at his daughter and one at himself.
Another blast was found in ceiling and another in the skirting board in one of the children’s bedrooms.
Police found Oakes lying down on a bed and although only semi-concious he exchanged a few words with both police and paramedics before being rushed to hospital.
Because of his condition, detectives were unable to speak to him for about two weeks.
The court heard that in April 2011, Miss Chambers had made a statement to a family solicitor describing how her
former partner was a violent and jealous man, and that 'endured throughout their association'.
Mr Pownall added: 'That is not to say Miss Chambers was necessarily blameless for the many arguments that took place.
'Miss Chambers was a doting mother that did nothing that could begin to justify what happened in the early hours of the morning of June 6 last year.'
Oakes denied two counts of murder at an earlier hearing.
He was not present in the dock when Mr Pownall outlined the horrific details of the case.
Earlier in the day, wearing a dark suit, white shirt and striped black and grey tie, the former bouncer with short grey hair sat fiddling with a large scar on the left of his face.
The trial, which is due to last up to four weeks, continues.
