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

Lucy Harrison, from Warrington in Cheshire, was shot in the chest on 10 January 2025 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 Kris Harrison after a grand jury in Collin County declined to indict him.

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

Littler, who travelled to the US with Lucy 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 Kris Harrison, who moved to the United States when his daughter was a child, had previously been to rehab for alcohol addiction.

Kris Harrison, who did not attend the inquest, admitted in a statement sent to the court that he had relapsed on the day of the shooting and had drunk about 500ml of white wine.

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 became "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 had been in the kitchen when her father took her by the hand and led her into his ground-floor bedroom.

Littler said he heard a loud bang about 15 seconds later and then Kris Harrison screamed for his wife, Heather.

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."

The statement from Kris Harrison said he and his daughter had been watching a news item on gun crime when he told her he had a gun and asked her if she wanted to see it.

They went into the bedroom so he could show her a Glock 9mm semi-automatic handgun which he kept in the bedside cabinet.

Harrison said he had bought the gun a couple of years before because he wanted a "sense of security" for his family.

He denied ever discussing it with his daughter before.

He said: "As I lifted the gun to show her I suddenly heard a loud bang. I did not understand what had happened. Lucy immediately fell."

Harrison said he could not recall whether his finger was on the trigger.

He acknowledged he had issues with alcohol in the past and said he "briefly lapsed" on the day of his daughter's death because he was emotional about her leaving.

The inquest heard police officer Luciana Escalera, whose evidence was read, noticed the smell of alcohol on Harrison's breath when he was called to the house after the shooting.

CCTV footage showed he had bought two 500ml cartons of Chardonnay from a 7-Eleven store shortly before 13:00 CST (05:00 GMT) that day.

'Force of life'

Ana Samuel, representing Kris Harrison, 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 Lucy Harrison's mother Jane 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 in the room when it happened.

Devonish refused the application to recuse herself.

In a statement issued by his solicitors, Kris 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.

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."

The inquest was adjourned until Wednesday, when the coroner is expected to deliver her conclusions.

(BBC, but headline rejigged)

• Lucy Harrison was killed at the home of her father in Prosper, Texas, prompting a manslaughter investigation. Photo credit: Facebook

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