A chef mentioned he paid somebody to have his ex-partner killed in a confession to police – seven years after she vanished on an evening out, a jury heard.
Alcoholic Darren Osment is accused of murdering Claire Holland, who disappeared in Bristol in 2012 and whose physique has by no means been discovered.
A jury at Bristol Crown Courtroom on Monday heard how the 41-year-old was because of see Ms Holland after ending a shift at a pub on the night time she went lacking – however he informed police within the days after that they hadn’t met, and he had gone house alone.
Nevertheless, Mr Andrew Langdon KC, prosecuting, informed the jury how Osment had made numerous drunken confessions, together with to police, within the years that adopted Ms Holland’s disappearance.
The conversations revealed how Osment blamed Ms Holland for his or her youngster being taken into care earlier than they break up up in 2010, mentioned Mr Langdon.
In 2014, Osment informed a roommate he had strangled Ms Holland earlier than throwing her physique into Avonmouth Docks, 9 miles from town, mentioned Mr Langdon. Then, in 2018, he informed one other man in a pub that he had paid somebody £500 to have her “executed”, the jury heard.
In 2019, Osment made a 999 name on an evening out in Devon during which he mentioned: “I’m handing myself in”. When the operator requested “you murdered your ex?”, Osment replied: “Form of, I do know what occurred to her.”
When police arrived to seek out him, he continued his confession, mentioned Mr Langdon, who learn a transcript of Osment saying: “I gave some cash to somebody and so they had her killed.”
A court docket artist sketch of Darren Osment, 41, at Bristol Crown Courtroom the place he’s accused of killing his ex-partner
(PA Wire)
Later, in a police interview, Osment mentioned he couldn’t bear in mind the 999 name or his dialogue with cops, mentioned Mr Langdon, who informed the jury: “You’ll on the finish of the case ask your self are all these confessions false confessions, is that the reason for the distinction? Or will you conclude that in every, Darren Osment was making an attempt to take duty for the very fact he did certainly kill Claire?
“Is he for some cause making an attempt to say duty for one thing he didn’t do to make himself look huge? Or was he, by means of the assorted drunken confessions he made, making an attempt to alleviate himself of the burden that he carried?
“If that is the case, then it seems, the prosecution say, he lacks the braveness to explain what he truly did, the reminiscence of it, it’s so horrid, so ghastly that in terms of it he can’t carry himself to spell it out.”
The court docket heard the defendant and Ms Holland met in 2008 once they labored collectively in a restaurant and started a relationship, with their solely youngster being born in 2010. The kid was taken into foster care after police have been known as to the house they shared in Bradley Stoke following allegations of alcohol-fuelled home violence.
The couple later separated – however have been because of meet, mentioned Mr Langdon, to speak about their son after he had been moved to Torquay to dwell with Ms Holland’s aunt.
The defendant, of Chessel Drive, Patchway, South Gloucestershire, has pleaded not responsible to homicide on a date between June 5 and June 8 2012.
The trial continues.
