Gun laws will be examined at inquest into deaths of girls, aged four and two

Gun laws in the UK could be overhauled after a father blasted his partner and their two young children to death with a shotgun during lockdown last year.

Robert Needham, 42, shot daughter Ava, four, in the chest and his two-year-old daughter Lexi in the head.

He also shot his partner Kelly Fitzgibbons, 40, in the head and neck at their £600,000 home in West Sussex.

Needham is pictured with Ms Fitzgibbons. Their bodies were found at their the family home in Woodmancote, West Sussex

Mr Needham is then believed to have shot himself in the head.

All four were found dead at the detached property in the quiet village of Woodmancote in the evening of Sunday March 29, 2020 – just a week after lockdown was imposed.

Today, a coroner said procedures around issuing firearms certificates in the UK would be examined as part of an inquest into the tragic deaths.

Penelope Schofield, coroner for West Sussex, said she would call the Home Office to give evidence at the inquest.

And she also laid out plans to call the chief constables of Hampshire and Sussex whose forces dealt with his previous firearms licence applications. 

Mr Needham, a builder, was last handed a firearms certificate in 2017.

If any faults are identified with current firearms procedures the coroner could write to the Home Office recommending changes in order to prevent future deaths.

The inquest will also look at Mr Needham’s mental health in the weeks leading up to the tragedy.

It is understood the builder had been suffering serious financial difficulties in the run-up to the Covid lockdown in March 2020 after he was forced to wind-up his building company in October 2019.

He had recently bought a second home in nearby Waterlooville, Hampshire, which he was renovating.

But he was also building an extension on the Woodmancote property, owned by his mother Maureen, 77.

She lived downstairs in a ‘granny flat’ he was creating while he and his family lived upstairs.

The family had moved to the large property to help care for his mother after his father Rex, who suffered with Parkinson’s disease, died in 2017.

All four were found dead at the detached property in the quiet village of Woodmancote in the evening of Sunday March 29, 2020 – just a week after lockdown was imposed 

Mr Needham and his partner Ms Fitzgibbons had two children – Ava, five, and Lexi, three

The killings shocked the village’s close-knit community, with locals claiming keen angler Mr Needham appeared to be a dedicated family man.

Just 48 hours before the tragedy, Miss Fitzgibbons posted a series of images online showing the whole family enjoying a lockdown walk in the sunshine.

The massacre was discovered after failing to get an answer at the front door, family friend Ronald Peacock climbed through a window and discovered the bloodbath.

Paying tribute earlier Miss Fitzgibbons sister, Emma Ambler, said: ‘Kelly was a wonderful and special person. She was kind, caring, funny and always smiling with an amazing love for life.

‘Kelly was a dedicated and loving mother and adored Rob and her two beautiful children. She had many friends and was devoted to her friends and family.

‘Kelly will be missed by so many people and has left a hole in our hearts that will never be filled.’

The tragedy came just two days after Ms Fitzgibbons posted a series of pictures on Facebook of her family out in the countryside last Friday under the heading ‘our walk for the day’

Mr Needham’s family said: ‘Robert was a man with a loving, caring young family. He had a beautiful partner Kelly and daughters Ava and Lexi, who he cared for deeply and who cared for him.

‘He was a quiet and thoughtful son and brother as well, always there to help when he was needed. We are devastated and bewildered at this most difficult of times.’

The inquest is due to be heard next May. 

A photograph Ms Fitzgibbons posted two days before the family were found dead

Police tape surrounds the garden of a house in the West Sussex village of Woodmancote