Claire Holland is a British woman who disappeared from a pub in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

on 6 June 2012. As of 2023, no trace of her has been found.

Disappearance

Holland, a 32-year-old woman from

Lawrence Weston Lawrence Weston is a post-war housing estate in northwest Bristol, England, between Henbury and Shirehampton. The estate is bounded in the east by the Blaise Castle estate and woods. It is at the edge of the Severn flood plain, directly be ...

, vanished after leaving the Seamus O'Donnell's pub in

Bristol city centre Bristol City Centre is the commercial, cultural and business centre of Bristol, England. It is the area north of the New Cut of the River Avon, bounded by Clifton Wood and Clifton to the north-west, Kingsdown and Cotham to the north, and ...

just after closing time at 23:15 on 6 June 2012. This was the day after the

Queen's Diamond Jubilee The year 2012 marked the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II being the 60th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. The only diamond jubilee celebration for any of Elizabeth's predecessors was in 1897, for the 60th an ...

weekend. She was reported missing a few days later. Holland was the mother of four children.

Investigation

In 2021, Avon and Somerset Police announced that they believed her disappearance was "linked to a crime" and were treating it as suspicious. A 37-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of murder in 2019, but was released after an investigation. A major search for her body in 2021 failed to find her. The Barrelhouse pub in Bristol was one of the places of interest. Specialist dive teams in Bristol Harbour were involved. In 2022, a man was rearrested amid "significant developments". Police charged a 41-year-old man with Holland's murder, and his trial was due to begin in October 2022. This was delayed until March 2023.

Trial, conviction and sentencing

The trial of 41-year-old Darren Osment began on 16 October 2023 at

Bristol Crown Court The Bristol Crown Court is a Crown Court venue in Bristol, England. It is located at the Law Courts in Small Street. Until 1993 the Crown Court met in the Guildhall, on the opposite side of the road. The new Crown Court, which has ten courtrooms ...

. The trial heard that on a night out in

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

, Osment, a former partner of Holland, had dialed

999 999 or triple nine most often refers to: * 999 (emergency telephone number), a telephone number for the emergency services in several countries * 999 (number), an integer * AD 999, a year * 999 BC, a year Books * ''999'' (anthology) or ''999: T ...

and confessed to the operator that he had murdered Holland and said that he was "handing himself in." When police officers arrived Osment claimed that he "didn't do it, but had it arranged." Osment was subsequently arrested and later released under investigation after he had claimed the following day that he did not remember speaking to the officers or dialing 999 as he was "too drunk." The arrest in 2019 led to police using an undercover officer to attempt to befriend Osment between December 2020 and July 2022. Osment had told the officer that he had strangled Holland before using his "knife skills" to cut open her torso before disposing of the body at

Avonmouth Docks The Avonmouth Docks are part of the Port of Bristol, in England. They are situated on the northern side of the mouth of the River Avon, opposite the Royal Portbury Dock on the southern side, where the river joins the Severn estuary, within Avo ...

. Osment claimed that the "massive overflow" at the time had "weighed down" the body to prevent it from floating back up. Osment also told the officer that he had disposed of the weapon used during the murder by placing it into another chefs knife box. After being charged and remanded, Osment explained to another prisoner in detail how he had murdered Holland. Osment denied this claim. He had also confessed to a work colleague in 2014 that he was "furious" with Holland for "keeping me away from my boy" and that he had strangled her to death and disposed of her body in Bristol. Osment also told another person in 2018 that he had paid someone £500 to execute the mother of his child. Osment was believed to have murdered Holland due to the fact he thought that she was responsible for their child being taken into

foster care Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home ( residential child care community, treatment center, etc.), or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent" or with a family ...

. Two years before Holland's disappearance, police were called to their home after he had assaulted her and pushed her down the stairs. On 11 December 2023, Osment was found guilty of murdering Holland. He is due to be sentenced on 20 December 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holland, Claire 2010s missing person cases 2010s in Bristol 2012 in England 2012 murders in the United Kingdom 21st-century English women Deaths by person in England June 2012 events in the United Kingdom Missing person cases in England Murder convictions without a body

Disappearance

Investigation

Trial, conviction and sentencing

See also

References