The family of a young woman who was murdered by her husband today called for a national Animal Cruelty Register to highlight “red flags” for would-be domestic violence victims.
Holly Bramley’s loved-ones told how Nicholas Metson had a history of harming pets before he killed the 26-year-old, dismembered her body and disposed of it in 200 pieces in a river. Before the senseless crime, Metson, 28, had twice been investigated by the RSPCA and admitted to strangling a rabbit, documents show.
Sickeningly, he is also alleged to have killed Holly’s pet puppy and hamsters amidst his campaign of abuse against her. In an emotional interview with the Mirror, her sister Sarah-Jayne Lindop said: “We always had an awful, awful gut feeling that eventually animals would not be enough of a victim. He had hurt and killed animals and it got to a point where that wasn’t enough for him any more – killing Holly was nothing to him.”
Metson is currently serving a life sentence for Holly’s murder. Two years on from her death, Sarah-Jayne, 42 and mum Annette Bramley, 65, are campaigning for a publicly-accessible register naming those convicted of harming animals.
Currently such information is only held by certain organisations, such as police and the RSPCA. Almost nine in 10 households that experienced domestic abuse said their pets were also abused by the perpetrator, a study by charity Pets4Refuge found.
Dubbed Holly’s Law, an animal cruelty register could become a vital resource for flagging potential domestic abusers, her family says. The concept is similar to Clare’s Law, introduced in 2014, which allows police to disclose a person’s history of violence to those who might be at risk.
“An animal cruelty register could help catch a killer,” mum-of-four Sarah-Jayne, who runs a cookery school, said. “If you are someone like that who wants to have some power, the most vulnerable and the most defenseless are going to be the victims.
“A register would enable people to note red flags of violence early and make informed choices before they get so far into an abusive relationship they feel unable to leave.”
Such a register may not have changed Holly’s fate, as Metson, who had prior convictions for offences against former partners, was not convicted of animal cruelty, only investigated. But Annette and Sarah-Jayne, from Holbeach., Lincs, believe it could help hundreds in her memory.
“Grief is an awful, awful thing because you’re consumed with it,” mum-of-14 Annette said. “We couldn’t save Holly, but if we can save just one other person that would mean the world to me.”
She told how Holly – who was “trusting and childlike with an indescribable smile” – had been studying small animal care at college when she met Metson there in 2016 and began a relationship.
Alarm bells were raised immediately when her brother discovered Metson had a conviction for sharing explicit photos of an ex. But Holly believed Metson’s assurances that he had “taken the blame” for the crime for a friend, Annette said.
Within a few months, he convinced Holly to move into his home in Lincoln, and enrolled them in a different college. He would regularly kick her out, telling her she was “ugly and that he didn’t love her” before turning up at Annette’s house and coaxing her back. One day, Holly turned up and confided that Metson had pinned her down on the sofa and strangled her before sending her away, Annette says.
“She told me about that and she told me that he had killed her puppy and hamsters,” she recalled. “I was horrified, scared. We notified the police and the RSPCA. But she still went back [to Metson]. He would lock her in the house and make her do the housework.”
She said police interviewed Holly, but told Annette there was not enough evidence to move forwards. “Holly was back with him, so she wasn’t going to cooperate,” she said. In the meantime, Metson isolated Holly from her family.
“Every now and again she would reach out for a video call,” Sarah-Jayne recalled. “But he would be there with his overpowering stance and generate some sort of disagreement.”
After around six months he stopped her from contacting them altogether – though Holly would still reach out via Facebook profiles using pseudonyms. “We’d have a brief chat and then the account would be disabled,” Sarah-Jayne recalled.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, Annette said Metson began sending her letters, taunting her over her daughter Emma, who died aged 31 in a parachuting accident in June 2010.
“He laughed at the thought of her body being splattered on the floor,” Annette said. “He went on to say that I was going to be joining her and it wasn’t a threat, it was a promise. For a long time I was very scared.
“The last family member Holly was in contact with was a cousin in Australia. Eventually, she messaged to say, ‘I hope Holly’s all right, because he’s now made her block me’.”
In 2021, Annette and Sarah-Jayne discovered the pair had gotten married after seeing photos on a mutual friend’s social media.
“There was no pre wedding makeup, hair done, no beautiful flowers,” Annette said. “Had she been marrying somebody else and been within the family, it would have been a totally different wedding.”
They now understand that, by early 2023, Holly and Metson’s relationship “was breaking down” and she was preparing to leave him. Heartbreakingly, she never managed it.
On 17 March 2023, Metson stabbed Holly multiple times in the bedroom before dismembering her. A court was later told how, moments before the murder, Metson had restrained his wife “in a headlock” but she bit his arm in desperation.
In the days after the killing, Metson messaged Holly’s friends using her phone claiming she had mistreated him, the court heard. He stored her remains in the kitchen larder for nearly a week, before paying friend Joshua Hancock £100 to help him dispose of her remains, in plastic bags, in the River Witham.
They were spotted by a passer-by on March 25. Police divers recovered 224 remains of Holly’s body, but some were never found, the court heard later. Police arrived at Annette’s home to deliver the unimaginable news.
Sarah-Jayne recalled: “As soon as I walked into that room and [Mum] said, ‘Holly’, I instantly looked at the police and said, ‘what has he done to her?’ I knew something really, really bad had happened. I can’t describe the noises that came out my body.”
Annette added: “I had to tell my mum that Holly had been killed, and she was 95. She just spent two weeks unconscious in hospital, she still had the faculties for her to say ‘Was it her husband?’ Even she knew.”
Police initially held back the horrific details about how Metson had treated Holly’s body. “We were thinking that we were imagining far worse than what it actually was… in fact we weren’t imagining anything like as bad as what it was,” Sarah-Jayne said.
Metson initially entered a not-guilty plea, forcing Holly’s family to endure a seven-month wait for a trial, which was then postponed to April 2024. In February 2023, Nicholas Metson changed his plea and admitted murder at Lincoln Crown Court.
Sentencing him to life in prison with a minimum term of 19 years and 316 days, Judge Simon Hirst told Metson: “The fact that some parts of Holly remained missing I consider to be an extremely aggravating factor.” He said Metson’s failure to give “any adequate explanation” for the atrocity “must have caused continuing agony and anguish for Holly’s family and friends”.
Joshua Hancock, 28, pleaded guilty to obstructing the Lincolnshire Coroner in the execution of his duty by helping to dispose of Holly’s body and an unrelated sex offence. He was sentenced to three years and three months in prison and was issued a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.
Heartbroken Annette told how she has been left with “endless questions”. She and Sarah-Jayne believe Metson’s jail term does not amount to justice. “Not when you consider that if […] he satisfies parole, that man will one day walk free, he can get married again,” Sarah-Jayne said.
The mother and daughter have thrown themselves into raising awareness about domestic violence. In the aftermath of Holly’s death they discovered letters Lincolnshire Council sent to the couple between 2019 and 2023, showing how they were repeatedly refused permission to keep pets at their property.
One letter in August 2020 describes how the RSPCA had previously “carried out two investigations into Mr Metson regarding cruelty to animals” but dropped them due to a lack of evidence. The council stated that Metson, who is autistic, had disclosed “that he had strangled a pet rabbit […] and disposed of the rabbit because voices in his head were telling him to”.
The letters prompted the family to campaign for an Animal Cruelty Register. They launched their petition last month. “Animal abuse is a major red flag for domestic violence – as well as other crimes – and that is information that should be available to everyone and anyone,” Sarah-Jayne said. “This could save lives.”
As of this week, it had amassed 47,500 signatures, meaning it will receive a Government response. After 100,000 signatures, petitions are considered for debate in Parliament. The family is also working with Lincolnshire Police and the Lincolnshire Domestic Abuse Specialist Service (LDASS) to provide education in dealing with cases.
Approaching the two-year anniversary of her daughter’s death, Annette, a carer to Holly’s dad Mick, 80, admits her grief is still “incredibly raw”. She said: “I jump at my own shadow… but helping people is getting me through. We will mark the anniversary with something special. Last year we released balloons and did a family meal.”
They are supportive of the Mirror’s Justice for our Daughters campaign which calls for tougher sentences on domestic killers. Sarah-Jayne added: “Having looked at so many more cases since Holly, I’ve made my peace with the fact that it wasn’t our fault.
“It doesn’t matter what background you come from, anyone can be a victim of domestic abuse.”
You can sign the petition here; https://www.change.org/p/establish-holly-s-law-an-animal-cruelty-register-for-domestic-violence-protection
For confidential support, call the 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Freephone Helpline on 0808 2000 247 or visit womensaid.co.uk. If you or your family have lost a friend or family member through fatal domestic abuse, AAFDA (Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse) can offer specialist and expert support and advocacy. For more info visit www.aafda.org.uk
