A pregnant woman has described how her neighbour killed her boyfriend with a crossbow in their home before firing a bolt at her head.
Anthony Lawrence, 55, forced his way into the house of neighbours Shane Gilmer, 30, and Laura Sugden, 27, before shooting him dead and seriously injuring her.
Ms Sugden has today spoken for the first time since the January 12 attack – and revealed she and Mr Gilmer were planning to marry and have more children together.
She also described how ‘psychopath’ Lawrence, 56, lay in wait for them armed with a crossbow, after he was evicted and following a row about his loud music.
Lawrence’s body was found two days after the attack.
Shane Gilmer, 30, and his girlfriend Laura Sugden (pictured together), 27, moved next door to wanted suspect Anthony Lawrence a few months ago
As Mr Gilmer was preparing drinks, Ms Sugden went upstairs to put on the electric blanket as the couple planned to watch TV in their bedroom.
She said: ‘When I got to the top of the stairs I noticed a mark on the cream carpet. I had been the last person in the house and I knew that wasn’t there before.
‘I pushed open the door to the spare bedroom and there was nothing and I did the same to my daughter’s bedroom and Tony was in the bedroom with a crossbow.’
She said that the events which followed happened very quickly, but she tried her best to reason with him and asked what he was doing.
‘I told Shane not to come upstairs. I didn’t really know what Tony was doing. I moved into my bedroom away from the top of the stairs. He pushed me onto the bed and Shane came up the stairs. Tony left the bedroom and shot Shane with the crossbow.
Mr Gilmer (left) was rushed to the Hull Royal Infirmary where he died following a crossbow attack. Police were searching for Anthony Lawrence (right) and have now found his body
‘I asked if what he had done to Shane would kill him and he said he would kill me as well. He said he knew it was us who had got him evicted. He then shot at my head with the crossbow.’
Ms Sugden said Lawrence left the room and she got off the bed before he came back into the room and attacked her again.
‘He tried to push the crossbow into my neck but I managed to guide it away. I tried to push it into him and I got up and Shane told me to go and get out of the property and get help.
‘I ran downstairs, I heard him behind me and I ran to a neighbour’s to get help. When I left, Shane was talking and conscious.’
Laura said the events of that night do not even seem real to her and she was terrified.
She said: ‘It is starting to become more real but it is hard to even believe it happened. I was terrified but in a situation like that there is only one of two outcomes and you do what you have to do.
Lawrence’s home is believed to be on the left, and Mr Gilmer’s is said to be on the right
‘I would never normally attempt to fight a man, but when you think you are going to die you have to do what it takes.’
‘Shane was amazing,’ said Ms Sugden, who has now been released from hospital and is staying with her sister. ‘Nobody had a bad word to say about him and he would do anything for anyone and helped a lot of people.’
Ms Sugden, 27, suffered lacerations to her face and neck in the horrific crossbow attack at her home in Southburn, east Yorkshire, and said she is still trying to come to terms with the dreadful events of that night.
‘I miss him terribly. We were planning to get married and have more children. He was amazing with my daughter Isabelle and spoke about her as if she was his own.’
She has thanked family, friends, colleagues and Humberside Police for their support over the past week-and-a-half and said she is taking each day as it comes as she begins to recover from her injuries.
Her 30-year-old boyfriend died of his injuries in Hull Royal Infirmary following the attack in the couple’s Southburn home.
Lawrence left Southburn in his Vauxhall Meriva, which was discovered early on Saturday January 13 in the Park Surgery car park on Eastgate North.
The body of Lawrence was found in a campervan in a rural part of North Yorkshire last night
Following a 45-hour manhunt, Lawrence’s body was found in a campervan in Broxa Forest in the North York Moors, close to Hackness, where it is believed he took his own life.
Ms Sugden, who had lived next door to Lawrence for three-and-a-half years, said she had never had any major issues with Lawrence, until a year ago when he began playing loud music.
She said: ‘We began having noise problems with him about a year ago and he played loud music into the early hours of the morning, which was so loud it would wake up my daughter.
‘One evening, the music was loud and when we were due to go to bed at around 11.45pm, Shane went over to ask him to turn it down.
‘Shane knocked on the front window and was told to go around the back. I heard a commotion and when I went outside Tony came out with an axe and said he was going to kill us.
‘Tony didn’t leave his garden and we went back into our property.
‘I didn’t know if he might have taken something because it was an irrational reaction and although we reported it to the police, we did not take any further action.’
Laura added that a letter was sent to Lawrence about the noise and it stopped for at least six to eight weeks and in that time she didn’t really have anything to do with her neighbour.
Police forensic officers leave the homes of Lawrence and Mr Gilmer in Southburn today
Last week a relative of the couple claimed Lawrence attacked them when he was evicted because they told his landlord he smoked cannabis.
He said the couple’s family wanted to make it clear that Mr Gilmer and Ms Sugden were ‘entirely innocent’ and just ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’.
He said: ‘Then recently, Shane and Laura could smell cannabis in their kids’ bedrooms coming from next door and reported him and the murderer was to be evicted for this.
‘He told the couple that he blamed them for himself being evicted.
Police forensic officers stand and sit outside the houses in the rural location of Southburn
‘He had removed part of the dividing wall [in the loft] and cleaned up so nobody would notice.
‘We don’t know how long ago he had done that or how many times he had been inside their house.’
Villagers in the sleepy hamlet-village of Southburn, near Driffield, East Yorkshire, were ‘in shock’ over the killing – which is the first murder in the area for a generation.
The manhunt lasted just short of two days when a tip off led Humberside Police officers to a camper van in Hackness in the tranquil North York Moors.
The dead body of Lawrence was found inside.
Tributes have been left for Mr Gilmer outside his home in the East Yorkshire countryside
Mr Gilmer was described by his ‘heartbroken’ family as ‘a fantastic son and brother’.
Paying tribute from her hospital bed, his partner Ms Sugden said last week: ‘My heart aches more and more every day – all our life plans gone within the blink of an eye.
‘I will love you forever and always. I have memories that will last me a lifetime, love always your dream girl Laura.’
Mr Gilmer’s parents, Pat and Adrian, and his brother Joe , have also thanked the community in Goole for their support.
A statement released by the family read: ‘Shane was a fantastic son and brother and we were so proud of him.
A mile-long area of the small village in Driffield (pictured) was cordoned off by police
The body of Lawrence was found last night in the rural North Yorkshire location of Hackness
‘He went through life like a whirlwind with his lovely smile and loud, barking laugh and was always there if anybody needed him.
‘He was a great father to his beautiful children and had another baby on the way, which he was so looking forward to.
‘There are no words to describe our utter devastation at the loss of Shane and life will never ever be the same again.
‘Thank you Shaneybobs for the 30 years of happiness, love and laughter that you gave us.’
Tributes have also been paid by Mr Gilmer’s colleagues at the East Riding of Yorkshire Council where he worked as a housing officer.