British woman, 23, shot dead by dad after argument about Donald Trump, inquest hears

She had travelled to the US with her boyfriend, Sam Littler, and was due to fly back to Manchester.

Cheshire Coroner’s Court heard that Ms Harrison and her father, Kris Harrison, had become involved in a “big argument” about Mr Trump, who was preparing to be inaugurated for a second term as US President.

During the row, Ms Harrison asked her father: “How would you feel if I was the girl in that situation and I’d been sexually assaulted?”

The court heard he replied that he had two other daughters living with him, so it would not upset him that much.

Mr Littler said Lucy became “quite upset” and ran upstairs.

About half an hour before the couple were due to leave for the airport, Mr Littler said Kris Harrison took his daughter by the hand from the kitchen into his ground-floor bedroom.

Around 15 seconds later he heard a loud bang.

“I remember running into the room and Lucy was lying on the floor near the entrance to the bathroom and Kris was just screaming, just sort of nonsense,” he told the court.

In a statement read to the inquest, Mr Harrison said he and his daughter had been watching a news item on gun crime when he told her he owned a firearm and asked if she wanted to see it.

They went into the bedroom where he kept a Glock 9mm semi-automatic handgun in a bedside cabinet.

“As I lifted the gun to show her I suddenly heard a loud bang. I did not understand what had happened. Lucy immediately fell,” he said.

He told the court he could not recall whether his finger was on the trigger.

Mr Littler told the hearing that his girlfriend often became upset when her father spoke about owning a gun.

Mr Harrison admitted he had relapsed on the day of the shooting, drinking about 500ml of white wine after previously attending rehab for alcohol addiction.

Lois Norris, representing Ms Harrison’s mother, Jane Coates, described the move as an “ambush”.

In a statement issued through his solicitors, Mr Harrison said he “fully accepted” the consequences of his actions.

“There isn't a day I don't feel the weight of that loss, a weight I will carry for the rest of my life,” he said.

Paying tribute, Ms Coates described her daughter, who worked as a buyer for fashion brand Boohoo, as a “real force of life” who “loved to have debates about things that meant a lot to her”.

A joint tribute from her mother and Mr Littler said: “Lucy was life. She lived it fiercely and fearlessly.”

“She was truly thriving in life and although this gives us great comfort, we are utterly heartbroken at the loss of our beautiful, gorgeous Luce.”

The inquest continues.