‘I faced him and wasn’t afraid’: Amazing bravery of daughter whose evidence got her evil stepfather jailed for life after he blasted her mother to death with a shotgun in front of her when she was 14 years old
- Cheryl Gabriel-Hooper, 51, was murdered by husband Andrew ‘Jack’ Hooper
- He killed her with shotgun as her daughter, Georgia, then 14, watched on in 2018
- Hooper was sentenced to life in 2019 after Georgia testified as a witness in court
- She told ITV doc Murder In The Family: ‘He didn’t get away with killing mum’
- READ MORE: Moment stepfather confesses to shooting wife dead by pointing to the word ‘yes’ after he was left unable to speak due to botched suicide bid
A crime documentary series has revealed the amazing bravery of a daughter whose evidence ensured that her evil stepfather was jailed for life for murdering her mother.
Cheryl Gabriel-Hooper, 51, was shot twice with a double-barrelled by her estranged husband Andrew Hooper in front of her daughter Georgia when she was just 14 years old.
After subjecting her to years of domestic abuse, Hooper killed Cheryl in January 2018 as she sat in her Land Rover Evoque – and Georgia witnessed him fire the antique gun as she was standing in front of the car.
And in footage of Georgia talking to ITV documentary Murder In The Family, Georgia has shared how she faced her mother’s killer without fear.
‘I was the first witness called in the trial,’ she said. ‘As daft as it sounds it was a privilege to be able to stand there and do that for my mum.’
Cheryl Gabriel-Hooper (left), 51, was shot twice with a double-barreled shotgun by her estranged husband Andrew Hooper (right) in front of her 14-year-old daughter Georgia in January 2018
Cheryl, with her daughter Georgia, who was 14 when she witnessed the shooting
‘I faced him and wasn’t afraid’: footage of Georgia talking to ITV documentary Murder In The Family, Georgia has shared how she faced her mother’s killer without fear
Georgia added: ‘I faced him and I wasn’t afraid. And he had to sit there and watch knowing he hadn’t broken me.
READ MORE: Chilling moment stepfather confesses to shooting his wife dead with a shotgun in front of her 14-year-old daughter – by pointing to the word ‘yes’ after he was left unable to speak due to botched suicide bid
‘He didn’t get away with killing mum. That was justice.’
After the attack, Hooper fled the scene and turned the shotgun on himself in a failed suicide attempt. He survived with severe disfigurement to his face and he is unable to speak.
Chilling footage showed the moment Hooper confessed to shooting Cheryl as he was in hospital, by pointing at the word ‘yes’ on a board with his trembling finger when asked in a police interview if he was responsible for his wife’s death.
He was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 31 years in 2019. He has since made two attempts to appeal his conviction but both were dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
The first episode of Murder In The Family, which covers Cheryl’s murder, aired on ITV1 last night and all three episodes are now available on ITVX.
The documentary also reveals the moment that police arrived at the scene and talked to a traumatised 14-year-old Georgia after she witnessed her stepfather murder her mother.
Bodycam footage shows Georgia, standing in the living room, immediately tell a police officer: ‘She’s dead.’
Giving her account to the officer while on the verge of tears, the teenage girl said: ‘He pulled up in the silver Land Rover behind the car so my mum couldn’t go anywhere.
‘He went up to the driver’s window and had the gun and was banging the barrel against the glass.’
As Georgia’s voice wavered she said: ‘I didn’t want to go over to it.’
Andrew Hooper who was found guilty at Birmingham Crown Court of murdering his estranged wife Cheryl Hooper and sentenced to life in June 2019
The officer reassured her saying: ‘Georgia, I know this is difficult.’
She continued: ‘He was hitting the gun against the car. I thought it was a spade or something, I thought he was going to hit her with something.
‘I jumped out the car, trying to unlock my phone, I couldn’t unlock my phone. Trying to get the police to come straight away.
‘He banged the glass, the glass shattered and then he put the gun up properly and shot her.’
Georgia’s voice cracked as she let out: ‘I can’t get it out of my head.’
She then pulled up her cardigan to her face as her head collapsed between her legs.
The documentary also reveals the moment that police arrived at the scene and talked to a traumatised 14-year-old Georgia (pictured) after she witnessed her stepfather murder her mother
Giving her account to the officer while on the verge of tears, the teenage girl said: ‘He pulled up in the silver Land Rover behind the car so my mum couldn’t go anywhere. He went up to the driver’s window and had the gun and was banging the barrel against the glass’
Georgia’s voice cracked as she let out: ‘I can’t get it out of my head.’ She then pulled up her cardigan to her face as her head collapsed between her legs
Hooper, had already been convicted of previous domestic abuse offences before he met her mother. But Cheryl never knew this when the relationship began.
Georgia spoke to MailOnline back in December 2020, saying: ‘I wish there could have been a domestic abuse register when my mum was alive.
‘My stepdad had a history of domestic abuse before even meeting my mum so if there had been a register, it could have prevented her from entering into a relationship with him.
‘A register would save lives because it would potentially stop someone from entering a relationship with an abusive partner,’ Georgia added at the time. ‘A lot of abusers turn into serial abusers, attacking every woman they go out with. It’s rarely an isolated incident so we need that register to keep women safe.
‘Something needs to be done. We have a sex offenders register, so why don’t we have a domestic abuse register?’
Cheryl, who had been abused by the ‘cowardly’ farmer for seven years, had moved out of their shared house at Guild of Monks Farm, near Newport, Shropshire, in December 2017 and moved to another house with Georgia in the town.
She was murdered six weeks later on January 26, 2018.
Georgia and her mum had just parked in the driveway of their new home when Hooper, who had earlier confronted Cheryl at a pub after putting a tracking device on her car, pulled up behind them in his truck.
‘My mum said ‘Oh my god he’s here’,’ Georgia previously told.
Knowing instinctively that something didn’t feel right, the 14-year-old schoolgirl got out of the car.
‘But by the time I got to the front of the car he had shot through the car window to break it and then he shot at mum again,’ she said.
‘I tried to find a pulse or get a reaction from her, but there was nothing.
‘I never thought he was going to kill her. I never thought he would take it that far.’
Footage of the police interviewing Andrew Hooper in hospital was shown in the documentary
Talking to documentary makers, Georgia revealed the abuse her mother Cheryl was subjected to by Hooper – known as ‘Jack’ by friends, saying: ‘I grew up thinking that domestic abuse is punches and violence – physical violence.
‘So with Jack, I didn’t really feel for a long that that there was a distinct problem with his behaviour. I wouldn’t have been able to say “this is wrong, this is domestic abuse”.
‘My mum wasn’t fully aware of what was going on because when you’re in it you can’t see it. His main aim was to make her feel completely worthless – it was power and control.
‘Jack was incredibly abusive in many forms: financially, emotionally, mentally – to the point where he thought it was his right to kill her.
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