Doctors are being urged to be more alert to signs of controlling and coercive behaviour after a man killed his wife and daughter, a review has found.
Lance Hart lay in wait for his wife Claire, 50, and daughter Charlotte, 19, before fatally shooting them both and turning the gun on himself at the Castle Sports Complex in Spalding, Lincolnshire, in July 2016.
Afterwards, the murders were described as being a tragedy nobody could foresee, despite the 57-year-old having subjected his family to years of mental abuse.
Mrs Harts sons Luke and Ryan had been at Spalding police station two days after the shootings when they saw a poster about domestic abuse described our father in perfect detail.
It was only then that the brothers realised they were victims of abuse.
The last two years have been a slow unravelling process for both of us as weve learned that our life was not how we had believed it to be, Luke Hart told Metro.co.uk.
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As it seemed to many, including us, our fathers violence appeared to come out of nowhere. Hed never been violent to us before.
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However, its only when we understood that domestic abuse is always about the desire to control others that it clicked that our father had been increasingly controlling over our entire lives.
Considering that murder is the ultimate act of control, suddenly it became clear that our fathers actions were not out of the blue, but in line with how hed always treated us.
Violence is a tactic abusers use to gain control, but if they are really dangerous they dont even need to use violence to achieve control.
We must all begin talking about domestic abuse is terms of control otherwise we will not see the vast majority of abuse or be able to tackle its root causes.
Now a Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) conducted by Lincolnshire County Council has stated that frontline general practitioners should ask more overtly about domestic abuse.
Harts behaviour was described as being endemic but was not known by professionals before the murders took place.
The review found that controlling and coercive behaviour was the least understood aspect of the overall domestic abuse.
It also recommended that the local safeguarding childrens board should request that schools run awareness sessions to gain a wider public understanding of domestic abuse.
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Although controlling and coercive behaviour is now embedded within domestic abuse definitions, it appears to be the least understood aspect of the overall domestic abuse and safeguarding legislation and where all professionals need to think wider and seek to explore individuals with greater curiosity, the review said.
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Frontline practitioners in particular need to be more alert to the signs and symptoms of these behaviours and be able to highlight possible triggers and subtle inferences and make appropriate referrals.
But while recommendations were made by the DHR, the review stated that there were no specific failings leading up to the deaths.
This was a tragedy that it appears nobody could foresee yet Claire, Luke, Ryan and Charlotte had been suffering intense domestic abuse for many years and didnt know this was what they were suffering as there was no physical abuse, it said.
The behaviour by the perpetrator was endemic and was not known by professionals, nor sadly, was it understood by members of the family.
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