Police admit they returned shotguns to puppy breeder accused of killing two women at his home as stepdaughter speaks of her grief at shootings

• Gunshots were heard at a house in Farnham, Surrey, on Sunday morning
• Police found the bodies of two women and corpses of four dogs
  
• Victims named as Christine Lee, 66, and daughter Lucy Lee, 40
  
• Surrey Police are questioning an 82-year-old man on suspicion of murder
• He was named as convicted illegal puppy farmer, John Lowe, 82
• Step-child Stacy Banner has spoken of her grief at the deaths of her family
• 'I have lost everyone - my mum, sister and dad. Now it seems he's wiped out my entire family,' she said
• Surrey Police has referred itself to the IPCC over decision to seize then hand back guns to Mr Lowe
  

By Rebecca Camber for the Daily Mail and Rebecca Evans for the Daily Mail and Nick Fagge for the Daily Mail and Martin Robinson

Published: 07:18 EDT, 24 February 2014 | Updated: 09:10 EDT, 25 February 2014

A puppy breeder arrested on suspicion of murdering a mother and daughter and executing four dogs had his shotguns seized last year only for them to be handed back by police, it was revealed today.

Surrey Police has referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission after it emerged they took John Lowe's weapons in May 2013 but returned them in July.

On Sunday morning armed officers called to reports of gunfire were confronted by sickening scenes, with the bodies of Christine Lee, 66, her daughter Lucy, 40, and four animals strewn around his squalid six acre farm in Farnham, Surrey.

Bereft Stacy Banner, 38, has said her whole family has been 'wiped out' as detectives continued to question 82-year-old Lowe about the bloodshed.

Her mother Christine was found dead inside the dilapidated farmhouse, while her sister Lucy, 40, had been shot dead outside in a muddy yard as she apparently tried to flee the gunman.

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Bereft: Stacy Banner, left, says her whole family has been wiped out after her mother and sister were shot dead on a puppy farm. Police are interviewing her step-father John Lowe, 82, right, on suspicion of murder

The women's bodies bodies were discovered by police responding to reports of gunfire at his isolated home

Detectives from Surrey Police are today investigating whether one of the guns recovered at the scene was one they returned to Mr Lowe last summer.

Surrey Police had had previous contact with parties involved in this incident and has referred a past contact to the IPCC,' a spokesman said.

'In May 2013 a shotgun licence and a number of licensed shotguns were seized from the address however the licence and guns were returned in July 2013.

'We are in the process of establishing if one of these licensed guns was the firearm recovered on Sunday'.

Under Home Office guidelines weapons can be seized for a nu,ber of reasons, including if the licence-holder has made a threat of violence.

An IPCC spokesman told MailOnline: 'We have received a referral from Surrey Police and are considering what our involvement should be.'

A source said that a dsecision on whether an investigation will be launched could happen by the end of today.

Both the dead women had been shot with a long-barrelled shotgun and were pronounced dead at the scene.

Surrey Police has confirmed the identities of Christine and Lucy Lee and said post-mortem examinations showed they died from gunshot wounds.

'I have lost everyone - my mum, sister and dad. Now it seems he's wiped out my entire family. This is a nightmare,' Stacy Banner told The Sun.

'I just can't get my head around what's happened. My family's gone and I'm absolutely devastated.

'I'm utterly heartbroken - we've been left in pieces.

'I just want to wake up and be told it's a dream. My mum and sister must have been so scared.'

Lowe's suspected breeding practices have been part of BBC Inside Out documentaries. The first was shot in 2004

Scene: Police called to a house outside Farnham, Surrey, found the bodies of two women and four dogs

A marked police van guarded the gates at the end of the drive of the detached house when they were called

Animal welfare officers removed this dog from the isolated puppy farm this afternoon. Four were already dead

Police and animal welfare officers coaxed an Old English sheepdog still left at the property into a crate

Neighbours said puppy breeder John Lowe, 82, has lived at Keeper's Cottage for more than 30 years

Forensics experts were called to the house - yesterday neighbours raised the alarm after hearing gunshots

Aerial shot: Mr Lowe's brick and flint farmhouse is surrounded by ramshackle outbuildings and sheds

A few yards away from the bodies, in a filthy kennel, police found a German shepherd that had been shot dead, while two other German shepherds and a labrador were also found dead nearby.

Pensioner Mr Lowe was arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder.

Animal welfare officers were called to rescue animals living in appalling squalor at the property, Keeper’s Cottage Stud, after Sunday’s shooting.

In all, 14 dogs were taken away, including nine kept in filthy, crumbling, outdoor pens. Six horses were also found at the property where Mr Lowe lived alone following his partner’s death last year.

Two in extremely poor condition were rescued from a yard covered in pools of liquid manure and strewn with rotting hay. 

The other four emaciated animals remained in a stable with its roof hanging off. They were caked in mud.

Among scrap metal and tumble-down outbuildings, a dovecote could be seen where Mr Lowe is said to have kept birds.  

It emerged that officials had regularly visited Keeper’s Cottage Stud over concerns at the conditions in which animals lived.

Surrey Police and the RSPCA were called in last July over concerns about breeding at the farm, when 50 dogs were found.

RSPCA Inspector Rob Jackson said last night: ‘I came to Mr Lowe’s property about six months ago responding to a complaint about the welfare of dogs at the farm.

‘I will not discuss that visit but previously he has bred a number of different breeds – beagles, labradoodles and German shepherds.’

An online petition set up last year calling on the RSPCA to close the puppy farm attracted 1,300 signatures.

Police remove the body of a dog from the scene where two women and four dogs were shot dead yesterday

Enlarge  

Police vans, RSPCA vans, and vehicles belonging to forensics teams were parked outside the farm this afternoon

A forensics officer works in one of several outbuildings at the property down a track outside Farnham, Surrey

Mr Lowe denied wrongdoing at the time saying: ‘There are no puppies here. The only dogs here are my four guard dogs. I have never heard of this petition and the things said on it are absolute rubbish.’

In 2009 he had been convicted at Guildford Crown Court of illegal dog breeding, when Recorder Joseph Boothby told him: ‘It is clear that you are a stubborn old man and you refuse to give up your old ways.’ He was fined £2,000 and banned from breeding dogs for five years.

In 2004, Mr Lowe was also the subject of an investigation by BBC’s Inside Out programme, which claimed he was breeding and selling puppies in poor condition. Some were said to have died soon after being bought.

Mr Lowe bought Keeper’s Cottage Stud in 1966. It has since fallen into a state of disrepair, but the plot alone would be worth several  million pounds.

A spokesman for the RSPCA said there were 'quite a large number' of dogs and horses still left at the property

The property is surrounded by fields and woodland, while what appears to be an outdoor kennel is near the house

Police were called to the house in a rural area outside Farnham, Surrey, shortly before 10am yesterday

Neighbours described the suspect as a recluse. ‘The RSPCA was always up there and no sooner had they shut him down than he would spring back into business. They just couldn’t stop him,’ said one man, who declined to be named.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Preston said the suspect was uninjured and remained calm when officers attended the house.

Last night police had yet to formally identify the victims. ‘The parties involved are all believed to be known to each other and police are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident,’ said a spokesman.

It was unclear whether Mr Lowe had a licence for the firearm found at the property. As the suspect was known to police the case has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

An RSPCA spokesman said it was working with the police ‘as there are quite a large number of dogs and horses at the property’.

Murder scene: Forensics officers remove bags of evidence from the scene this afternoon

A private ambulance removed one of the victim's bodies from the farm this afternoon

THE SQUALOR BEHIND THE SMART GATES: INSIDE MR LOWE'S STUD

With its smart brick and flint gateposts and elegant slate sign, there is little to indicate the squalor of John Lowe's Keeper's Cottage Stud.

But it has been the subject of repeated investigations by animal welfare agencies, and as recently as last summer, more than 1,300 angry people signed an online petition calling for the animal to be closed down.

In 2008, journalists working on a BBC investigation into conditions at his animal farm interviewed customers who said they had bought dogs from Mr Lowe without knowing they were seriously ill.

A smart slate sign with gold lettering is inlaid into the gates to the squalid animal farm where the women died

One customer who bought a beagle puppy from him said the dog fell ill within an hour of them getting home and died within days.

She said: 'The farm was filthy but we were desperate to buy one.  We were silly - we bought it on the spur of the moment.

'We thought we could take her away from there and give her a better life, but that didn't happen.'

Another customer had to have his beagle puppy put down after it, too, became seriously ill soon after it was bought from Mr Lowe.

In 2009 Mr Lowe was convicted of illegal dog breeding and described by a judge as a 'stubborn old man' who 'refused to give up his old ways'. 

He was fined £2,000 and banned from breeding dogs for five years by magistrates and the sentence was upheld by a judge at Guildford Crown Court when Mr Lowe appealed against the conviction.

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