true crime

Seven-year-old girl killed by her estranged dad after grave mistake revealed her hiding place.

A seven-year-old girl was murdered by her estranged father after her mother’s solicitor accidentally sent him the address of the safe house where she lived, but an inquest into the events has concluded they can’t be sure that’s how he found her address.

On September 11, 2014, Yasser Alromisse shot and killed his seven-year-old daughter Mary Shipstone on the doorstep of the safe house she and her mother Lyndsey thought would protect them from him. He then turned the gun on himself.

Video via BBC

A serious case review into Mary’s murder, that the BBC says was published in March but not publicised until now, found her father had been given the secret address by Lyndsey’s attorney in divorce papers months earlier and that the attack was “calculated to deprive the mother of her child while at the same time leaving her with a permanent memory of her death”.

The review found that five months prior to the shooting Lyndsey told the police that her solicitor had inadvertently given Alromisse their new address in some legal papers, but the police reportedly didn’t follow up.

According to The Sun, due to an error, Lyndsey’s call was passed onto the wrong neighbourhood police team and officers did not take action.

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The review also found evidence that Lyndsey and Mary’s address and/or identities were also disclosed to Alromisse in error by both a bank and the Child Support Agency.

But somehow, despite all these errors, the 73-page East Sussex Local Safeguarding Children’s Board’s review said it couldn’t be proved that Alromisse found their address on these papers noting: “It has not been possible to establish exactly when and how he found out where Child P was living.

“There is no evidence that any professional was aware of this activity, nor did he make any threat to harm Child P or give any indication that he might do so.

“The review has concluded that no professional working with the family could have prevented him acting as he did.”

But the findings of the report do nothing to help Lyndsey Shipstone. According to The Sun, she continues to slam the lack of support she received during the five years she was fighting for custody of Mary.

“Because it took so long, people underestimated the seriousness,” she said.

“Actually there is a lot of danger, we had the briefest window and then Mary was killed and really nothing was OK.

“She was the happiest she had been for a long time. She was learning the violin and learning to dance and doing all the normal things. She was a happy girl and she was developing as a person in her own right, which is what every child deserves.”