Chef who admitted killing his ex to undercover officer jailed for at least 20 years

A pub chef who was caught on camera confessing to killing his ex-partner to an undercover police officer has been jailed for at least 20 years.

Darren Osment, 41, murdered Claire Holland, 32, during a drunken row in 2012 before dismembering her body and dumping her remains in the River Avon.

Her body was never found despite extensive investigations, so she remained a missing persons case for years.

In July 2019, Osment called 999 and confessed to police  that he ‘had her killed’, but was released under investigation after later denying it in an interview as te ‘ramblings of a drunk man’.

Nevertheless, the incident prompted Avon and Somerset Police decided to send in an undercover officer – who went by the name Paddy O’Hara – to befriend Osment in 2020 and find out what happened to Ms Holland.

The undercover investigation, between December 2020 and July 2022, saw the officer pose as someone involved in the criminal underworld with links to organised crime, and saw the officer spend many hours with Osment playing pool or snooker, going for walks or engaging in supposed criminality.

His conversations with Osment were covertly recorded, amounting to more than 1,200 hours of footage – including repeated confessions relating to Ms Holland from the father-of-two suggesting he had killed her, cut up her body with a knife and dumped her remains in water.

During the trial, the court heard the undercover officer had witnessed many examples of Osment’s violent temper, particularly when drinking.

In one recorded clip, Osment told the officer: ‘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.’

He tells him in another clip: ‘And then, 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.’

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.

Osment tells the officer: ‘The time it happened there was a massive overflow.

‘There was a load of f****** water, and it came rushing down, I know the f****** route it comes down, and I think it’s just f******… cause it’s such little bits.

‘It’s all f****** weighed, it’s all down, it’s not going to come floating back up.’

Osment was arrested and charged with Ms Holland’s murder in August 2022. He pleaded not guilty to the offence but was convicted by a jury at Bristol Crown Court by a majority verdict last week.

On Wednesday afternoon, 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.”

The judge added: ‘You left her family with the agony of not knowing where she was or what happened. As you started to move on with your life, you left her family in limbo.’

‘You were haunted by it and seeking to relieve the burden of what you did, you made confessions over the years to six people.’

In victim personal statements read to the court, the family of Ms Holland appealed to Osment to reveal where her remains were so they could lay her to rest.

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.’

Osment and Ms Holland, described as alcoholics at the time, had met in 2008 and had a child two years later.

During the trial, Andrew Langdon KC told the jury that Osment blamed Ms Holland for their child being taken into care and killed her in a drunken argument hours after she was last seen in June 2012.

Mr Langdon told jurors 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.

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”.’

Following the jury’s verdict, the actions of the undercover officer were praised.

Detective Superintendent Darren Hannant, of Avon and Somerset Police, said: ‘The undercover officer put his safety at risk to expose Osment’s offending.

‘He spent hours in his company and in doing so, was able to gather vital evidence to achieve justice for Claire and her family.

‘The covert material showed Osment’s actions on the night, and how the reality of what he had done had affected him.

‘He was both disgusted by, and felt justification for, his actions, and on one occasion was physically sick when he saw a televised police appeal for witnesses.’

Speaking outside the court, Claire’s sister Sarah Holland described how the mother-of-four’s disappearance had caused ‘tremendous sadness, confusion and worry’ to the family.

She said: ‘The pain of not having her in our lives is indescribable. We will forever miss her happy, warm, and fun personality. She loved her children wholeheartedly, and they will always love her.

‘During the trial we have been sickened to hear how Claire’s life was cruelly taken from us. Her death was totally senseless and completely unjustified. We have listened to weeks of painful evidence.

‘Despite all this, we still do not know the full details of what happened to Claire. Her body has never been found.

‘The person who took her life has continued to cause us agony. We continue to suffer because of this failure to tell us about Claire’s final moments, and where she went.

‘We have been denied this basic justice. Her death is indefensible. We have been haunted by our not being able to see her one final time. She deserves to be given a place to rest, where we can honour and respect her memory.’

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