Miss Evans was five months pregnant when she died

An investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Caroline Evans and William Davies was launched following the discovery of their bodies at the Red Lion pub in Llangadog, west Wales.

A shotgun was discovered at the scene.

Police are investigating the possibility that Mr Davies, 59, shot Miss Evans, 27 - who was five months pregnant - before turning the gun on himself on Thursday evening.

Mr Davies had previously appeared in court where he admitted assaulting and threatening to shoot the pub landlady, and had been described as depressed at the time.

Now barrister Lord Carlile of Berriew has said an independent person, such as a judge, should examine the court processes and produce a published report.

William Davies arriving at court last December

Speaking on BBC Radio Wales, Lord Carlile, a leading Liberal Democrat peer, said there was cause for concern.

"We have a case here in which it appears the male involved had been convicted in the past and had appeared before a court.

"Now whenever someone is convicted, a pre-sentence report is prepared in which a risk assessment takes place.

"Also, I understand that he may well have had some psychiatric treatment which had some focus on his apparent obsession with the landlady of the pub.

"In that too, a risk assessment would have taken place," he said.

"In my view, this is the sort of case where the authorities should call in someone independent like a judge to carry out an independent inquiry as to whether the risk assessments were carried out in an appropriate way and the right action was taken.

"That's not to imply any specific criticism against anyone but I think that the local community and above all the families involved have a right to know if the right things were done.

Lord Carlile: case is 'cause for concern'

Following his court appearance, Mr Davies was not imprisoned or detained for making the threats, but was given a community rehabilitation order (CRO) because he was judged only to be a danger to himself.

Lord Carlile commented: "That's the only logical reason I can think of why a CRO was used rather than some form of sentence which would have provided protection for the woman concerned and a breathing space for everybody.

"But one needs to know more detail in order to judge whether what was done was right.

"I'm not a person who believes in calling for inquiries and I'm most certainly not calling for a public inquiry here.

"But I think an independent inquiry is needed, preferably with a public report so that one can be sure the right things were done and if they weren't, important lessons are learnt."

Lord Carlile had come across previous incidents similar to the shootings at Llangadog.

People are suffering and they are entitled to know why they have been brought to this point of suffering Lord Carlile

"I can think of two cases arising from my professional experience in which that kind of thing happened, one resulting in the death of two children, the other in the near-death of a woman," he said.

He believes having an inquiry will provide "some kind of closure" for the families involved.

"People are suffering and they are entitled to know why they have been brought to this point of suffering," he added.

Lord Carlile added the case would let people examine whether the laws applying to stalking were adequate to deal with this sort of situation.

He said there was a need to know if the balance was right between allowing people their liberty and giving protection to victims.