Plymouth shooting: Gunman threatened to kill teenagers in earlier assault

The inquest into the deaths of the five people shot and killed by Jake Davison in August 2021 continues at Exeter Racecourse

Gunman Jake Davison threatened to kill two teenagers after he assaulted them in a park, an inquest has heard.

Davison, 22, killed five people in the Keyham area of Plymouth on 12 August 2021 using a legally-owned shotgun.

An inquest heard Davison was "raging" after returning home following the assaults in September 2020.

Darren Wood, at the time the partner of Davison's mother Maxine, said Davison had begun loading his shotgun until his mother calmed him down.

In August 2021 Davison killed his 51-year-old mother, three-year-old Sophie Martyn, her father, Lee, 43, Stephen Washington, 59, and Kate Shepherd, 66, before turning his legally-held pump-action shotgun on himself.

Inquests into the deaths, which are being held at Exeter Racecourse, heard Mr Wood was living in the Davison house at the time of the assaults in 2020 and he gave evidence about the "tense" atmosphere in the house.

He said Davison showed him his shotgun on numerous occasions and left his ammunition around the house.

Mr Wood said he was present in September 2020 when Davison returned to the address in Biddick Drive "raging" and "angry" saying he had assaulted two minors.

"He literally came back, ran upstairs to the bedroom saying he's going to kill such and such at the skateboard park," Mr Wood said, adding he heard a sound like the loading of a shotgun.

Mr Wood said Davison stopped because Ms Davison told him he would go to jail.

He said Davison handed himself in to police over the assault, but only because his picture appeared in an appeal for information about it in the local paper.

Davison later handed himself into the police after a public appeal was made using CCTV images of a suspect wanted for the September 2020 assaults

Davison applied for his shotgun license in 2017 and was granted it in 2018.

It was removed in 2020 following the skate park assaults, but returned to him in 2021, a few weeks before the shootings.

Speaking about the relationship between Davison and his mother, Mr Wood said: "I think she feared Jake.

"He treated her like a slave… Maxine, she didn't want him to have the gun… she didn't want it in the house."

Earlier on Friday, the inquest heard from Josephine Duffy - one of Davison's former teachers - who Davison had asked to provide a reference for his initial gun license application in 2017.

Jake Davison killed five people and injured two others, during a mass shooting in Plymouth, in August 2021

The inquest heard Ms Duffy visited Davison at his home with his mother, before agreeing to be a referee.

She told the jury Davison "looked well" and told her he had been going to the gym and had an apprenticeship.

She said she stayed for half an hour because she thought if he was putting on an act he would not be able to maintain it for longer than that.

He said he wanted a shotgun licence so he could shoot clay pigeons with his uncle and his mother told her it would be "fantastic for him to get out of the house", Ms Duffy said.

The inquest heard firearms enquiry officer David Rees contacted the teacher at school about a week later and his notes showed she had described Davison as "a likeable young man" with a positive attitude, who had an "acknowledged interest in sporting guns".

'Difficulty controlling his behaviour'

Talking about his time at school, Ms Duffy said Davison had difficulty controlling his behaviour when he first started secondary school, which had led to his autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis, but had improved and he was "very well liked" by the end of his time at the school in 2014.

She said she was aware of an altercation between Davison and another pupil when he was 11 or 12 in 2011 and said it was her understanding he had been "provoked" by the other pupil and she was not aware of an earlier incident where Davison had assaulted two teachers.

She said Davison had a "special interest" in sporting guns, which was part of his autism and also included an interest in artillery and the history of weaponry.

Ms Duffy said he was "very erudite and knowledgeable" and "never at any point said anything about wanting to hurt anybody with a gun".

She said Davison "wasn't disruptive as a whole" but would lose his temper "if somebody wound him up".

Dominic Adamson, who is representing the Martyn, Washington and Shepherd families, asked Ms Duffy about the reference saying she had described him in "almost glowing terms".

Ms Duffy said that was her "lasting impression".

She said she was "completely devastated" by the shootings.

Davison killed Maxine Davison, 51, Sophie Martyn, three, her father Lee, 43, Stephen Washington, 59, and Kate Shepherd, 66 in August 2021

In a statement read to the hearing, retired head teacher Barry Jones said he thought Davison's interest in guns was "unhealthy" and would not have given a positive reference for a gun license had he been asked.

Another teacher, Richard Williams, described being put in a headlock twice by Davison and said had he been asked for a reference he would have mentioned the assault on himself and "my concerns about anger management".

Davison's uncle Robert Chapman told the inquest his nephew had an interest in shooting and asked him to help with his shotgun licence application.

Mr Chapman said he was a shotgun and firearm licence holder at the time but had since surrendered his licence and weapons.

He said he never shot with Davison before his application and only shot clay pigeons with him twice after he got his certificate.

Mr Chapman told jurors he would have questioned the type of ammunition his nephew had if he had known about it.

He said he used "six shot" for shooting clays, which was a lightweight ammunition containing hundreds of lead balls, but he said Davison had "boar shot", which was much heavier, adding: "We don't do shooting like that here."

Mr Chapman said he believed Davison would have had to buy the boar shot online.

"I don't think he would have got them from a gun shop because a gun dealer would have questioned him," he said.

The inquest continues.