BRISTOL AND SOMERSET HERALD

Friday, 16 March 2012

WOMAN BRANDISHING A GUN SPOTTED BY NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOUR

by Jessica Fox

An Eye-Witness to last week’s shootings saw a woman leaving the property with a gun on the morning of the double murder in Tilby.

Peter Bright, 37, who lives next door to where mother and son Deirdre and Clive Wilson were shot dead, described seeing a ‘dark-haired woman’ leaving their cottage with a gun used for ‘hunting’.

He said: ‘I had just come back from a run and thought I heard a shot, then a thump and a bang coming from next door. I didn’t think too much about it until I was putting the bins out. And then I saw this dark-haired woman stride down their garden path with what looked like a shotgun slung over her shoulder as though about to go and shoot birds. She had a deranged look on her face. I watched her get into her car and then I heard screams from my wife. When I turned back I saw what Holly was screaming about. The Wilsons’ front door was wide open and Deirdre’s body was slumped at the foot of the stairs. That’s when I put two and two together and realized the woman I saw had just shot Deirdre Wilson.’

Mr Bright continued, ‘I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The woman was totally calm when she left the house. She got into a sky-blue estate car. I remember thinking it was weird because I’d passed that car over an hour earlier while on my run, which must have been about 6 a.m. And that same car had been heading into Tilby Manor Caravan Park and had been driving very erratically.’

Avon and Somerset police are appealing for more witnesses to come forward.

I file the story in time for the lunchtime deadline so it will appear in tomorrow’s paper, then take a long slug of coffee.