Solaine had been playing on a swing when the suspect opened fire.
A British mother screamed as she cradled her dying 11-year-old daughter who had been shot by a neighbour on cannabis after a long-running dispute over their adjoining gardens in France.
Solaine Thornton, was playing on the swings with her younger sister Celeste, 8, at around 10pm on Saturday while her parents sat in their garden during a family barbecue, when a pensioner is alleged to have launched a shooting spree in the picturesque hamlet of Saint-Herbot, in Brittany.
On Monday night, Dirk Raats, the 71-year-old Dutchman who lived yards beyond their plot of land, was charged with murder and attempted murder. His Belgian wife Marlene Van Hoof was still being questioned in custody.
Prosecutors said Raats “regretted” his actions which were made “in a blur”. He has tested positive for cannabis and alcohol along with his wife, who allegedly hid the weapons after the attack inside their large house, an old school.
The father, Adrian Thornton, 53, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, was seriously injured and taken to hospital where he remains fighting for his life. Rachel Thornton, 49, the girls’ mother and a home help for the elderly, was wounded and remains in hospital.
Camille Miansoni, the prosecutor for Brest, said “a neighbourly conflict existed for some time” between the families in the remote hamlet, with the Dutchman, described as a recluse, feeling the Thorntons’ gardening work “opened up to scrutiny from outside”.
He said: “On Saturday the father had started works to his hedge and this exasperated the suspect who later took a loaded .22-calibre rifle and shot three or four times [all of them hitting people].
“Two weapons were seized during the search – a .22 rifle [thought to be the murder weapon] and a .30-30 calibre weapon and ammunition. The murder weapon was hidden by the shooter’s wife before the police arrived. Old dried-up cannabis was found in the house.”
Miansoni said: “He [Raats] has agreed to all his rights, he’s been seen by a doctor, for example, and there is no evidence to suggest that he is unhinged psychologically.”
The prosecutor also revealed that the Dutch neighbour is alleged to have shot at the British father from within 10-metre range.
He said that the gun used in the attack had not been “registered”. The cannabis was also being kept for “everyday consumption”.
Miansoni also claimed that not all sides had cooperated with some attempts to negotiate.
He said: “The couple facing charges were behind attempts to mediate via the town hall. And while this has to be clarified by the investigation, it appears the victim’s family was less committed to this process. Mediation had been launched but the [British] family were not very involved in this approach.”
The Telegraph can now reveal just how a sleepy Finistère village was rocked by horror on a summer’s night – and how what locals called a “trifle” over a hedgerow spiralled into tragedy.
After shots rang out, striking her sister in the heart and father in the head, Celeste ran some 300 metres across her garden and the village lane to the house of Pierre Leroy, a family friend.
Leroy told The Telegraph: “Celeste had dodged a bullet and ran for her life up here saying, ‘They’ve killed my sister and the man shot my dad’. We went straight over there and the girl was dead and the mother was cradling her in her arms and screaming.
“Adrian was shouting as well – injured but conscious – but the mother, who is now stable but being operated on, understood it was too late for her daughter. There were no words, just screams.”
Leroy said his wife, Frederich, accompanied the girl to hospital and remained with her on Monday afternoon. “Celeste is in a state of shock but she knows everything – she knows her sister is dead and her father is seriously ill. The man had a pistol” he said.
Both Leroy and another neighbour, an 83-year-old former soldier who has lived directly next to the garden where the shooting took place since 1948, said they were “convinced the suspect wanted to kill the entire family”.
After the fatal attack the Dutch pensioner shut himself in his house with his wife. Police swarmed the property and negotiated until he surrendered himself at around 11pm.
On Monday, the Dutchman’s kitchen was left strewn with half-eaten salad bowls, while a purple puffer jacket was crumpled on a trampoline in the British garden.
The family had been seen three weeks ago when they ran a stall at Saint-Herbot’s pardon, a popular Catholic fête. Judith Jones, 85, a former headteacher from Yorkshire who lives in the village, said they were “smiling with everybody; the girls went to buy a plant with their mother”.
This newspaper understands the dispute centred on an oak tree that the couple wished to chop down to create a play area for their children after buying the house, a former sawmill, in 2019 for €127,000 ($223,000).
But their Dutch neighbour is alleged to have lodged a complaint with a bordering authority and attempted to sue the couple in the past three years. In both cases the Britons were said to have been found acting properly.
Marguerite Bleuzen, mayor of Plonévez-du-Faou, said “the Dutch were unhappy about them clearing their land, chopping down a tree, which was in their rights to do and over noise regarding the use of a chainsaw” and that the “town hall mediated”.
“How can a simple neighbourly dispute end in tragedy like this. It’s incomprehensible. And for a 71-year-old to reach this level of anger over a simple row is appalling,” she said.
“The British family were very well integrated into the community. She worked as a home help for the elderly in nearby Huelgoat and he worked on his land. The others didn’t want to talk.”
Neighbours claimed that police were previously called after the suspect apparently threatened the family.
While few in the village knew or ever saw the Dutch neighbours, many praised the British family. The Thorntons were thought to be planning to travel to Manchester next month to celebrate the 80th birthday of the girls’ grandmother.
Danielle Isaac, 68, a neighbour, said: “The girls were adorable and so well brought up. No swear words or shouting. I have cried a lot since this terrible tragedy.”
Kim MacKenney, 64, a retired teacher from Four Oaks, West Midlands who has had a house in the hamlet for five years, said: “Some people say that about half the residences in the area are English. Families come here because they know it’ll be safe for their children. A traffic jam is a big thing around here. But lots of local people have guns because they take part in ‘la chasse’ [hunting].”
Marie-Celine, a direct neighbour of the suspect, said he had told her he sought “quiet” but that “we can’t even eat in the garden in the summer” because their hedgerow was exposed.
She added: “He [Raats] and his wife had threatened Adrian, Rachel and the two girls with guns. They made the sign ‘couic’ [slitting the throat].”
Jean-Yves, 58, the local postman doing his rounds, said on Monday: “The little girl who was killed, I remember before Christmas last year she knew a parcel was coming for her and what day I would be coming.
“When I arrived she came rushing towards me with such a smile. And now this bastard has ended her life. What did he want to achieve?”
Violators could face fines ranging from €135 to €700 for breaking the ban.