DOG breeder John Lowe, who told police a mother and daughter “had to be put down” after shooting the two women dead at his farm house in Tilford in 2014, has died aged 86.

Lowe was jailed for life for murdering Christine Lee, 66, and her daughter Lucy Lee, 41, at Keepers Cottage Stud off Waverley Lane in February 2014.

The Herald understands Lowe died from “natural causes” at St Raphael’s Hospice in Worcester Park on Saturday, August 4. He remained a prisoner at High Down jail near Banstead at the time of his death.

Guildford Crown Court heard in 2014 that Lowe shot the two woman with a shotgun as they tried to flee his six-acre small holding, also shooting dead four dogs in his care.

A year before the shootings, in March 2013, Surrey Police seized a shotgun licence and a number of shotguns belonging to Lowe after Stacy Banner, the daughter of Christine and sister of Lucy, reported to police that he had threatened to shoot her.

Five of these guns were returned to Lowe seven months before the shootings in July 2013, however, following an assessment by firearms licensing officers.

A subsequent investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) found that Surrey Police’s firearms licensing supervisor Stanton Royle and firearms licensing enquiry officer John Crabb failed to take “simple investigative steps” to address whether Lowe was a danger to the public before returning the weapons.

Surrey Police agreed with the IPCC and in November 2016, dismissed Mr Crabb without notice. Mr Royle retired prior to a hearing taking place.

Lowe was previously stripped of his dog breeding licence in 2004 after a raft of complaints prompted an investigation by the BBC.