THE MOTHER of a seven-year-old girl who was shot dead by her estranged father says she wants people to remember her daughter's "smiling face" and fun-loving nature.

Mary Shipstone died after being shot in the head by her father as she walked home from school with her mother, Lindsey Shipstone.  

Yasser Alromisse then apparently turned the gun on himself near to the home Mary shared with her mother and brother in Northiam, East Sussex.

Speaking this evening for this first time since the incident on September 11, Ms Shipstone said she wanted her daughter to be remembered as a "fun-loving girl who loved life."

She added: "She has had her life snatched away from her so cruelly when there was so much promise, but I would like people to remember her little smiling face.

"She was such a happy child and I think people who knew her, that is the memory that will stay with them about Mary."

The mother-of-two said her daughter was a "lively, intelligent" girl who loved dancing and could not wait to start learning the violin she had received on the day she was shot.

"People would describe her as sparky," she said. "She had her own views, you know she could be challenging but she was also very, very caring and gentle and very fond of her friends."

She added: "I was extremely proud, yes, and I did not waste any opportunity to share that with other people and with her.

"No expense was spared in allowing her to pursue her interests and I took a great deal of pleasure in making Mary happy.

"I just liked to see Mary happy."

Ms Shipstone also revealed a memorial fund has been set up in Mary's memory, the Mary Shipstone Memorial Fund.

She said she wanted any funds raised to go towards Mary's headstone and towards The Music Well charity based in Rye, which offers music therapy to children who have suffered trauma.

Ms Shipstone said support from Reverend Rod White, Rector of St Mary’s Church in Northiam, and others, had helped her cope and she was taking "each day as it comes."

Recalling her relationship with her only daughter, she said: "We were very close. We had not spent any time apart.

"She was a very loving girl and even though she came across as confident and sometimes a little bit opinionated she was actually a very sensitive girl and she needed a lot of reassurance.

"She never went to bed for example without demanding a kiss and a hug and things like this.

"So she needed her mum basically and I was always there for her."

Mary's mother also spoke of the horrifying moment she saw her estranged partner shoot dead their daughter on her doorstep.

She told how Mary was shot in the head as she and her daughter returned home from school clutching her violin.

In a harrowing account, Ms Shipstone said she picked injured Mary up and rushed her to a neighbour's home to try to revive her but it was to prove in vain.

She said: "It was just an ordinary day. Mary had come home from school. She was holding her violin.

"We walked to the house. There was nothing extraordinary. We'd just picked up one of the local cats that waited for her.

"It waited for her every day when she came home from school. We were holding her and just walking down the path and were going to give her some food, like we did every day.

"And as soon as I put the front door key in there was a terrible bang behind me and I turned round and Mary was on the ground.

"I saw her father with the gun in his hand pointing at Mary's head and he fired a second time, and then he retreated into the car and I just dropped down to Mary and dragged her round the front of the house away from the car.

"And I was screaming for help and I was telling neighbours who were calling the police that he had a gun and Mary had been shot.

"And I realised I had to get her away."

To donate to the memorial fund, visit www.gofundme.com/ejpqc8