A double murder trial has been given an horrific account of how a little girl was blasted to death with a shotgun.

Details of how the child's mother Chrissie Chambers was also killed with the same weapon have also been revealed.

And a jury has been shown how the child's mother could not have used the weapon to injure herself.

Chelmsford Crown Court has heard how David Oakes claimed his former partner Miss Chambers had shot their two-year-old daughter Shania before pointing the gun at him.

In the struggle over the weapon that followed, Oakes claims Miss Chambers died and he received a serious injury to the left side of his face.

The prosecution has alleged 50-year-old Oakes killed his former partner and daughter and then turned the gun on himself as he feared losing access to the child after the couple split up.

Oakes was again not in court to hear the latest evidence in his trial preferring to remain in his prison cell.

Firearms expert Robert Griffiths told the court how he had seen the bodies of both victims and was asked to give his opinion on the shotgun wounds they received.

Shania had died from a single gunshot to the head. The shot had been fired at point-blank range with the muzzle of the gun touching or very close to her forehead, Mr Griffiths said.

The child's mother had been shot three times but it was not clear in what order, Mr Griffiths said.

One shot to the left thigh had gone through the leg and injured the right ankle and another shot had injured the right knee.

There was another shot to the left aide of the torso, Mr Griffiths said.

He used a similar weapon to the one used to demonstrate to the court how Miss Chambers could not have been responsible for the injuries.

Mr Griffiths said he was unable to say in what order the shots were fired but he estimated they had been fired from a range of less than three feet, the court was told.

He also said Miss Chambers may have been standing when one of the shots were fired before she fell to the floor where she was discovered later.

The shot to her left side was certainly not self-inflicted, Mr Griffiths said.

Oakes is accused of murdering 38-year-old Miss Chambers and his daughter at their home in Bartram Avenue, Braintree, in the early hours of June 6 last year.

The unemployed builder and former bouncer from the Steeple Bay caravan park, Canney Road, Steeple, denies two charges of murder.

The prosecution has alleged Oakes was fuelled by jealousy and carried out the killings only hours before Miss Chambers was due to go to court over custody of Shania.

The trial has heard he subjected Miss Chambers to a three-hour "degrading assault" in which he forced her to strip and cut out clumps of her own hair.

He is alleged to have told her "If I can’t have you, then no one can" before he turned the gun on himself.

*The trial continues.