A woman whose daughter was shot by her estranged husband was reportedly in a bitter dispute with him over custody.

Yasser Alromisse, understood to have been living in Broomfield Avenue, Worthing, shot his seven-year-old daughter Mary Shipstone and then killed himself after his ex-wife rejected him and Islam.

Mary’s mother Lindsey Shipstone is believed to have left her husband more than five years ago and gone into hiding with her two children in a reported dispute over her desire to move away from the Islamic religion.

Ms Shipstone is thought to have left their marital home in Liverpool to live in Brighton from 2009 to 2011, before moving to Northiam, near Rye, where the tragedy unfolded last week.

Posting on Twitter in December 2009, she said: “We can leave the house without worrying about my husband bothering us.”

Neighbours in Liverpool told the national media that Mr Alromisse had been banned from being alone with Mary or Ms Shipstone’s older son Stephen by social services after claims that he had hit Stephen.

A family friend said: “He used to hit Stephen. Stephen used to say: ‘He’s a bad man’”

Previously a practising Catholic, Ms Shipstone converted to Islam after meeting Mr Alromisse, but is thought to have converted back after leaving her husband.

Mr Alromisse, said to have been renting a house in Worthing, is thought to have spent a week tracking down the Shipstone home. Police are still trying to piece together his movements.

The estranged couple are believed to have been involved in a custody battle and further legal proceedings had been planned.

Denise Berwick, 38, who lives opposite the shooting location, saw Mary’s distressed mother cradling her outside her home.

She said: “She’s a lovely lady. She’s polite, she shook my hand when I first met her and said if I needed anything I could look upon her.

“I don’t know if she had a partner and she had never mentioned domestic problems. It has come as a huge shock as it’s a quiet area.”

It is the second huge loss the grieving mother has had to bear after daughter Yasmin Miriam died aged eight months in 2002.