A YOUNG woman who jumped to safety from a bedroom window after her stepdad began shooting dead members of her family has spoken of the devastating impact it has had on her.

Laura McGoldrick was also shot when Michael Atherton carried out the New Years Day massacre in Horden, Peterlee, County Durham, last year.

The 21-year-old is still coming to terms with the tragedy, in which her mother Susan, 47, aunt Alison Turnbull, 44, and cousin, Tanya, 24, were killed.

She is constantly reminded of the horrific image of seeing the 42-year-old taxi driver cold-bloodedly killing her mother.

In a national newspaper over the weekend, she said: “She was laughing when she got shot in the back, that’s all I keep seeing, my mam laughing.

“Over and over again, I see my mum laughing, then her head and body arched back as the barrel of the gun moved.”

Miss McGoldrick said Atherton flew into a rage when her mother and aunt came home after a night out without him.

She said she fled as Atherton shot the women ‘as if hunting rabbits’.

She said: “He was hunting us and I knew I was next. It felt like everything was really still for a very long time but it was just seconds.

“Me and my cousin ran together. She took most of the shot. I could feel pain but I didn’t really realise my shoulder had pellets in it.

“I kept running upstairs. I was covered in blood.

"He fired again at Tanya. He shot her twice. I still think he was trying to get me.”

Chillingly, at the inquest into the deaths last month, Miss McGoldrick saw the murder weapon once again.

She said: “I couldn’t believe it was the actual gun. I was in shock.

“It brought everything flooding back.”

She said the re-enactment of events at the inquest, where Coroner Andrew Tweddle recorded that Susan, Alison and Tanya were unlawfully killed, and Atherton killed himself, caused her to have a mental breakdown.

After experiencing suicidal thoughts, she sought treatment in a psychiatric unit.

She said: “I can’t laugh any more but I cry every day.

“I’ve stopped going out, I’ve put on three stone, I won’t answer my phone and I even sold my car because every time I look in the wing mirror I see my mum covered in blood, or him.”