Darren Osment v R

Facts

Claire Holland, then 32, was last seen alive on 6 June 2012, when she spent much of the day and evening at the Seamus O'Donnell's public house in Bristol. Her body was never found, her phone was never used again and her bank account was never accessed. The prosecution case was that she had been murdered that night by the appellant, Darren Osment, the father of one of her four children, C, who had been taken into care and moved to live with Ms Holland's aunt on 28 May 2012. She told her mother, a social worker, the landlord, the barmaid and two regulars that she was going to meet the appellant after he finished work; he denied any such arrangement. Over the following decade the appellant confessed to Adrian Mulcahy, to Michael Salway, to Selina Mulcahy, to the police in a 999 call from Exeter in 2019, to an undercover officer known as Paddy deployed between December 2020 and July 2022, and to a fellow remand prisoner, Daniel Lewis. On 11 December 2023 in the Crown Court at Bristol, before Mrs Justice Cutts, he was convicted of murder by a majority of 10 to 2 and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 20 years. The single judge gave leave on ground 7 only; grounds 1 to 4 were renewed.