Tragic mother loses fight for life

Dec 30 2009

Julie Harrison, whose four-year-old daughter was shot dead by her estranged partner, has lost her own battle for life.

Ms Harrison, who was seriously injured in the attack, died at 9.30am on Wednesday at St George's Hospital in Tooting, Hampshire Police said.

Her ex-partner Andy Copland, 56, is thought to have killed the couple's daughter Maisie with a gunshot to the head and mortally wounded Ms Harrison, 40, on Tuesday morning at their house in Aldershot, Hampshire.

Copland then shot himself.

Meanwhile, Ms Harrison's former husband Kevin Moody, 47, has said she was a bubbly personality with lots of friends.

Print production manager Mr Moody, from Farnborough, Hants, was married to Ms Harrison from 1992 to 1996, when they split amicably.

"She was a good laugh and we had an awful lot of fun when we were together. We met about 18 months before we married in 1992 at a house we both rented rooms in.

"We didn't have any children and basically we split because she wanted to do the things that a single woman wanted to do and I didn't."

Mr Moody said he kept in touch for a couple of years and that he last saw his ex-wife in 2006 at the funeral of his mother Margaret.

"I had not told her about the funeral, so it was nice of her to come. She seemed happy. She showed me loads of pictures of Maisie on her phone - she was well proud of her."