Lucy Harrison was shot in the chest at medium range by her father while visiting his home on holiday, shortly before she was to leave to the airport and return home
Tannur Anders and Ben Haslam
07:00, 12 Feb 2026
Lucy Harrison with her father Kris
An alcoholic dad who has a “jokey nature” is thought to have aimed his gun at his daughter while trying to tase her, an inquest heard.
Lucy Harrison, 23, had been on holiday in the United States with her boyfriend Sam Littler on January 10, 2025 when she was fatally shot. The couple had arrived at her dad’s home on December 28, 2024.
An inquest into her death at Cheshire Coroner’s Court in Warrington on Wednesday, February 11, heard how Miss Harrison’s dad Kris Harrison had taken her by the hand into his bedroom shortly before he was due to drive her and Mr Littler to the airport to return home to England.
Mr Littler told the court how around 15 seconds later he heard a bang before Kris shouted his wife Heather’s name, Liverpool Echo reports.
Mr Littler, Mrs Harrison, her two daughters and a neighbour ran to the bedroom where they found Lucy on the floor shortly before 3pm.
Lucy Harrison and Sam Littler on Christmas Day in their Warrington home (file image)
Senior coroner Jacqueline Devonish, when summing up the case, described Kris as a “functioning alcoholic” and highlighted his drinking ahead of the fatal incident.
“I find that Kris Harrison did not immediately tell the truth about his drinking to those representing him,” Ms Devonish said. She added that US police said Mr Harrison smelt of alcohol and eventually admitted drinking continuously since the morning of the incident.
“He was a secret drinker… It was irresponsible of him to plan to drive Lucy and Sam to the airport that afternoon, in the circumstances,” Ms Devonish said.
“I am left in no doubt whatsoever that he had been drinking continuously on 10 January. This was normal for him and he could function. No-one in the family suspected that he had been drinking that day.”
The court had also previously heard how Mr Harrison had drank at least 500ml of chardonnay from a carton before the shooting. He told police he was “not under the influence” and police did not breathalyse him or take a blood sample.
Ms Devonish said how Mr Harrison had taken the box that the gun had been kept in from the bedside cabinet before removing the 9mm semi-automatic Glock handgun.
Lucy’s mum Jane Coates and boyfriend Sam Littler (file image)(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
The coroner said that she does not accept that the gun went off as he removed it from the box due to the room layout and location in which Lucy’s body was found.
“To shoot her through the chest whilst she was standing would have required him to have been pointing the gun at his daughter without checking for bullets and pulled the trigger. I find this action to be reckless,” Ms Devonish said.
She said she found Lucy to have been unlawfully killed, with no one prosecuted when a grand jury reviewed the evidence in June last year.
“Accidental discharge of a gun into the chest of a person whilst pointing a gun at their chest and pulling the trigger must meet the threshold of being ‘gross’,” Ms Devonish said, handing down her conclusion to the court.
“The wound to the chest can only have occurred with the gun being pointed directly at her across the room. Such behaviour was ‘gross’ due to the existence of a reasonably foreseeable and obvious risk of death. He had a personal and moral responsibility to ensure he could use/keep the gun safely in his home to protect his family.
“The grossness of his actions is aggravated by his alcohol use. On his own evidence however, he was not inebriated and therefore does not have alcoholism as an excuse for the circumstances in which his daughter tragically lost her life.”
The coroner said she found that “Lucy Harrison died due to unlawful killing on the grounds of gross negligence manslaughter.”
In the statement released to the LiverpoolECHO in his absence from proceedings, Mr Harrison said: “Lucy was the light of my life.”
“I fully accept the consequences of my actions, and 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, and I know that nothing I say can ease the heartbreak this tragedy has caused,” he continued.
