Shot man's daughter helps police

Fred Picton-Turbervill leaves five children. Photo: Beeld

The 10-year-old daughter of a Welshman who was shot dead at his South African home is helping police try to catch his killer.

Fred Picton-Turbervill, 46, was shot in front of his wife and four children by one of two armed robbers who stole a laptop, four mobile phones and cash.

His widow Ursula said their eldest daughter is helping officers create an identikit image of the suspect.

Police in Pretoria said no arrests had been made and investigations continue.

Mrs Picton-Turbervill said she believed officers knew who killed her husband, whose family live in the Vale of Glamorgan.

"They say that they have some leads. At the moment my eldest daughter is busy putting together an identikit of the man that shot her father," she told BBC Radio Wales.

"When the police came on Saturday night and they asked me for a description so that they could go looking for them immediately, when I told them what the guys looked like, they went 'oh yes, it's the same two guys. OK, we know who we're looking for'.

All he said to them was 'please don't hurt my kids, please don't hurt my kids' Ursula Picton-Turbervill

"So clearly this is not the first time they've killed."

She said her four children, aged between three and 10, were left "very traumatised".

Mr Picton-Tubervill's son Jamie, from a previous relationship, was celebrating his 21st birthday in the UK on the day of the shooting.

He has flown to South Africa with Mr Picton-Turbervill's mother, Catherine, 78, a Vale of Glamorgan counciilor.

After Thursday's funeral, Mr Picton-Turbervill's ashes will be scattered in the grounds of the 12th Century Ewenny Priory, near Bridgend, where his father Richard and stepmother Ann live.

Burgled before

South Africa-born Mrs Picton-Turbervill has described the moment the robbers broke in.

She said the family were watching DVDs and the children were jumping on trampolines when the dog began barking.

Her husband saw one of the men coming through and shouted "run". The men then took handbags, mobile phones and the laptop and forced the family to the floor saying "sleep, sleep, sleep".

One of the men kicked her husband in the head before the other robber stamped on his back and shot him in the head.

She said her two eldest daughters saw the shot being fired.

Mr Picton-Turbervill had not provoked the armed raiders in any way, said his wife, adding: "All he said to them was 'please don't hurt my kids, please don't hurt my kids'."

Former rugby player Mr Picton-Turbervill, who ran a furniture firm in Lancashire before moving to South Africa, died at hospital in Pretoria an hour after the robbery.

Mrs Picton-Turbervill added the house had been burgled more than once before but the raiders had never been armed.