A WOMAN whose mum and sister were shot dead by Tilford puppy farmer John Lowe has told an inquest the late murderer “was like a dad to me”.

Christine Lee, 66, and Lucy Lee, 40, were gunned down by Lowe, then aged 82, at Keepers Cottage Stud off Waverley Lane in 2014.

Lowe, who told police the mother and daughter “had to be put down” in the aftermath of the shootings, died aged 86 last August after being convicted of murder.

Giving evidence at an inquest into the deaths this week, Mrs Lee’s daughter Stacy Banner told jurors Lowe had been kind to her family before turning “very controlling” and “nasty”.

Speaking at Surrey Coroner’s Court, Mrs Banner said the family first met Lowe around 1986 when she was around 12 years old and they went to get her a puppy.

She added her mother and Lowe struck up a personal relationship “almost instantly”, even though he already had a long-term partner, Sue Wilson – leading to an unusual arrangement where she, her mother and sister would sometime live at Keepers Cottage for as much as months at a time with both Lowe and Ms Wilson.

Mrs Banner described her sister Lucy as her “protector”, and told the court she went on to think of the “lovely” Ms Wilson as a second mother. She added her real father had been a “violent monster”, while Lowe was “much nicer and kinder”.

She said: “John was like a dad to me and Sue was like a second mum, so my motivation, as I saw it, was to help my parents. I loved him because he could be incredibly kind... he could be incredibly funny. I hate saying it.

“Yes, he hit us but it was not like what we experienced before.”

Mrs Banner later helped to care for Ms Wilson, who died in March 2013, and Lowe’s dogs – adding she told Lowe he should not be dog breeding, as he had been banned and the puppies were not healthy. She continued: “He didn’t care, he never cared. Everything was disposable to him.”

The inquest continues.