Sisters see their father shot dead by drug-crazed robbers for £80 and a laptop

Fred Picton-Turbervill, 45, had cooperated with the raiders but one of the two men shot him in the eye before making off with a laptop, four mobile phones and £80 in cash.

Mr Picton-Turbervill was pronounced dead an hour later at hospital.

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Surgeons said they could do nothing to save him.

Last night his widow Ursula, 41, said the family were devastated by the killing.

"It's just so pointless - he was doing what they said and was no threat to them. It makes no sense at all.

"They are not even animals for what they have done to me and my children. Was it really worth a few cellphones and some cash?"

Their daughters Samantha, ten, and Bryony, nine, saw their father's murder and are now traumatised, she said, while Natasha, six, and Gregory, three, were confronted with his body and a lot of blood.

"They are being very, very strong - they know their father would have wanted that," said Mrs Picton-Turbervill.

The couple met 13 years ago and were married within a month. Mr Picton-Turbervill was descended from one of Wales's oldest families.

They settled in Burnley where they ran a successful furniture company. It was called D'Urberville Designs as a play on their names.

In 2003 they decided to move to South Africa, Ursula's homeland, for a better quality of life.

They set up a new furniture business, called Creative, which flourished.

The family moved into a four-bedroom house in one of Pretoria's most affluent areas where a number of ambassadors live.

The single-storey, open-plan property has a pool, double garage, large back garden and veranda overlooking the garden.

Last night Mrs Pickton-Turbervill said the children would never go back there and she would be selling it, probably to return to Britain.

"I don't know if I can protect my children in South Africa," she said.

On Saturday night two men overcame 7ft-high walls and electric fencing to enter the house in the capital's suburb of Waterkloof Ridge - half a mile from the home of national police chief Jackie Selebi.

"They shouted: 'Sleep, Sleep', and 'Money, Money'," Mrs Pickton-Turbervill recalled.

"I don't think they could speak good English. Fred asked them not to harm the children but they didn't respond.

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"Then one of them shot my husband. I didn't see it because he was behind me but my two older girls saw it.

"The two younger children were round the corner but all of them saw the body and blood.

"Gregory was saying 'the doctors are going to fix my daddy up, he's going to be OK'. I'm not sure he realises what's happened yet."

She went with her husband to hospital but doctors told her that his head injuries were so severe he could not be saved.

"He was a wonderful man, gregarious and a great father," she added.

"He wasn't the type to come home, sit on the settee and watch TV - he'd play with the kids, cook or do something useful.

"He was fit and very strong and I love him very much and am going to miss him terribly."

Mr Picton-Turbervill had two other sons from previous relationships, one of whom, Jamie, 21, was flying out from the UK last night along with Mr Picton-Turbervill's mother.

His funeral is planned for Thursday after which his ashes will be scattered back in Wales at the family's estate at the former Benedictine priory of Ewenny, Corntown, in the Vale of Glamorgan.