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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Steven Morris

How an undercover police officer won trust – and confession – of a murderer

Claire Holland, second from left.
Claire Holland, centre, who disappeared aged 32 in June 2012. Photograph: Family handout

It sounds like something out of a cold case thriller: an undercover police officer poses as a hardened criminal and befriends a suspected murderer. The suspect comes to regard the officer as his best friend and eventually confesses.

During a trial at Bristol crown court, a jury was given a rare insight into a true-life relationship between an undercover police officer who went by the fake name Paddy O’Hara and Darren Osment, who was suspected of killing his former partner Claire Holland.

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