A pub chef who was secretly recorded on camera confessing to the murder of his ex-partner has been jailed for life.
Darren Osment was the subject of a 20-month undercover police operation which saw an undercover officer befriend him under the guise of a petty criminal called Paddy O’Hara.
Unaware he was being filmed and recorded, he made repeated confessions to killing 32-year-old Claire Holland, suggesting that he had killed her, cut up her body with a knife and disposed of her remains in water.
Claire Holland was last seen alive leaving a pub in Bristol in June 2012— (PA)
He had been under investigation by the police after he called 999 in July 2019 and confessed to an operator “I’m handing myself in” and said, “I had her killed”.
However, detectives were forced to release him after he later retracted his confession in an interview, with little evidence available to pin him to the crime.
Ms Holland, a mother-of-four, had last been seen leaving a pub in Bristol on the evening of 6 June 2012, with a major investigation launched after she was reported missing.
Despite a city-wide CCTV trawl, underwater searches, house-to-house inquiries and media appeals, her body has never been discovered and no forensic evidence was found.
After his confession in 2019, Avon and Somerset Police authorised a covert operation to snare him, with the undercover officer pretending to be a neighbour that was involved in the criminal underworld.
Between December 2020 and July 2022, the officer spent many hours with Osment playing pool or snooker, going for walks or gaining his trust by involving him in supposed criminality.
In one recorded clip, Osment said: “I just mate just I, you know, it’s what it is, but it’s all, all done, done and dusted, all the f****** work, clothes burnt outside, f****** everything’s gone, everything’s gone.”
Osment became close friends with the officer and made a number of confessions— (PA)
In another, Osment said that he has “knife skills” and ran his hand across his torso while making a swishing sound which appears to indicate he had cut up Ms Holland’s body and then weighted her down in water.
During the trial, the jury heard that Osment blamed Ms Holland for their child being taken into care and killed her in a drunken argument hours after luring her to his pub.
The couple had met in 2008 while they were both alcoholics, with their son removed from them by social services after Ms Holland reported him to the police for pushing her down the stairs.
While undercover, the officer covertly recorded 1,200 hours of his conversations with Osment, in which he made repeated confessions relating to Ms Holland.
In another clip, he said: “Mate, I trust you like a f****** brother … it’s just, I don’t f****** cast my mind back to what I had to f******, do you know what I mean, it’s not f****** pleasant bro. It was f****** horrible.”
Jurors heard how Osment, of Chessel Drive, Patchway, had confessed to six different people including a former girlfriend, her brother, friends, the 999 call handler, Mr O’Hara and a prison inmate after his arrest.
Claire Holland’s family asked Osment to reveal the location of her body— (Avon and Somerset Police)
The prisoner reported: “During the argument, Claire struck Darren. In retaliation, Darren Osment grabbed Claire by the throat and took her down to the floor.
“Darren spoke and gestured that he pushed Claire down to the floor, on her neck and gestured with his hands that he was choking her. Darren said, ‘By the time I’d let go, she was gone’.”
Ms Holland’s daughter, Rosie Holland-Hall, told Osment: “You will never understand the harm you have caused to me.
“I will never forgive you for what you have done and the damage you have caused.”
Her half-sister Michaela Holland also told the court the family had finally achieved justice for her, and implored Osment to reveal the location of her body.
The undercover officer built his trust by involving him in fake criminal activities— (Avon and Somerset Police)
“Darren, I want you to know that you have destroyed our family,” she told Osment. “We have so many questions. What were her last words, did she see it coming?
“If you have got it in your heart, please tell us where she is. We just want to lay her to rest.”
In a televised hearing, Mrs Justice Cutts sentenced Osment to life and ordered him to serve a minimum of 20 years in prison.
“Claire Holland was aged 32 at the time of her death in June 2012,” she told Osment.
“She was a warm and vivacious person who was deeply loved. She had experienced difficulties in her early life but in 2012 was, in the words of her mother, starting a new chapter.
“She had a new flat, had reengaged with her family and was engaging in a programme to stop drinking.
“She was happy and optimistic about the future. A fresh start was ahead of her. You robbed her of that fresh start. You robbed her of the future she deserved.”
