‘They took everything’: arson attack destroyed a mother’s memories of her dead son

Karen and Tosh Holmes had to move out of the house for six months while it was repaired. Nobody has been charged over the petrol-bomb attack and the case has been closed. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Guardian

Karen Holmes is sitting in her newly renovated lounge in a house she has lived in for 28 years, but she cannot live here now. She cannot leave, either.

The house looks good. Better than good, people tell her. There are new walls, new floors, new windows. French doors where there used to be a window.