Dad shot daughter after 'arguing about Donald Trump'

A British woman who was shot dead by her father while visiting his home in Texas had rowed with him about President Donald Trump earlier that day, an inquest has heard.

Lucy Harrison, from Warrington in Cheshire, was shot in the chest on 10 January last year at the address in Prosper, near Dallas.

Police in the town investigated the 23-year-old's death as possible manslaughter but no criminal case was brought against her father, Kris Harrison, after a Grand Jury in Collin County declined to indict him.

An inquest into Harrison's death opened earlier at Cheshire Coroner's Court, where her boyfriend Sam Littler described the "big argument" about Trump, who was due to be inaugurated to begin his second term.

Littler, who travelled to the US with Harrison for the holiday, said she would often become upset with her father when he spoke about owning a gun.

The inquest also heard how the father, who moved to America when his daughter was a child, had previously been to rehab for alcohol addiction.

Littler said on the morning of 10 January his partner had asked her father during the Trump row: "How would you feel if I was the girl in that situation and I'd been sexually assaulted?"

Kris Harrison had replied that he had two other daughters who lived with him so it would not upset him that much.

Littler said Lucy was "quite upset" and ran upstairs.

He told the court that later that day, about half an hour before they were due to leave to go to the airport, Lucy Harrison had been in the kitchen when her father took her by the hand and led her into his ground floor bedroom.

About 15 seconds later he heard a loud bang and then heard Kris Harrison screaming for his wife, Heather, he said.

Littler said: "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."

Harrison's mother Jane Coates said her daughter, who worked as a buyer for fashion brand Boohoo, was a "real force of life".

She said: "She cared. She was passionate about things. She loved to have debates about things that meant a lot to her."

Kris Harrison did not attend the hearing to give evidence.

Ana Samuel, representing him, made an application at the start of the hearing for coroner Jacqueline Devonish to recuse herself from the case, saying a fair-minded observer may conclude there was a "real possibility she was biased".

She said the inquest had been conducted "in a manner more akin to a criminal investigation than a fact-finding inquiry".

Lois Norris, representing Coates, said the application was an "ambush by Mr Harrison's legal team".

She said Kris Harrison was the "person in the room who shot Ms Harrison" and the only person who was in the room when it happened.

Devonish refused the application to recuse herself.

The inquest is expected to conclude on Tuesday.