The Independent Police Complaints Commission, which has launched a probe into the case, said Chambers had reported incidents to police for about two years, with the most recent being on May 27.

“Christine provided a statement to police in which she reported that she was being pestered and harassed,” the IPCC said in a statement. IPCC Commissioner Rachel Cerfontyne said their inquiry would focus on how officers had responded to the reports.

“Nobody could fail to have been shocked by what happened in Braintree yesterday,” she said. “At this stage, it is too early to say whether police responded appropriately to each incident and this is something that will take time to establish, but we will make our findings public as soon as we are able.”

A 50-year-old man, named by media as Shania Chambers’s father David Oakes, is under police guard in hospital. He is said to have significant but not life-threatening injuries including a shotgun wound. Chambers’s elder daughter escaped from the house and fled to relatives.