John Leo Lowe charged after bodies of two women, believed to be Christine Lee, 66 and daughter Lucy, 40, found on farm

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

An 82-year-old man has been charged with the murder of a mother and daughter on Sunday at the dog breeding farm he owned in Surrey.

Police said that John Leo Lowe, who owned the farm in Farnham for many years, would appear on Wednesday at Guildford magistrates court.

He was charged with two counts of murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life after the discovery on Monday of the bodies of two women, believed to be Christine Lee, 66, and her 40-year-old daughter Lucy.

Armed officers arrived at the property within 20 minutes of neighbours raising the alarm and tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate the women, who were discovered along with a long-barrelled firearm in separate parts of the farm. Four guard dogs had also been shot.

It emerged on Tuesday that police firearms officers had returned a number of shotguns to a dog breeding farm in Surrey seven months before the deaths of the mother and daughter.

As police continued to question Lowe, the Independent Police Complaints Commission confirmed it had been called in to assess "previous police contact with the parties involved".

Surrey police said: "In May 2013 a shotgun licence and a number of licenced shotguns were seized from the address. However the licence and guns were returned in July. We are in the process of establishing if one of the guns was the firearm recovered on Sunday."

Lowe, a dog breeder who has owned the farm for many years, remained in police custody on Tuesday after police were granted an extension to continue questioning him on suspicion of the murders.

The dead dogs, three German shepherds and a Labrador are believed to have been Lowe's guard dogs. The RSPCA rescued a fifth dog, an old English sheepdog, and a number of other animals found at the property.

Lowe is understood to have run Keeper's Cottage Stud for at least 10 years, keeping up to 50 dogs in the farm's 20 kennels as recently as last year.