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Gorleston: Homicide review after Patricia Holland murdered by Allan Scott
- By Peter Walker and George Thompson
- BBC News and Local Democracy Reporting Service
Image source, Family handout
Patricia Holland was described as a “very charitable woman”
Two safety reviews are due to take place over the murder of an 83-year-old woman killed by her lodger.
Allan Scott murdered Patricia Holland at her home in Gorleston-on-Sea, Norfolk, in July 2021.
Both the families of Scott and Mrs Holland have complained of being turned away by support services.
The Norfolk County Community Safety Partnership will conduct a domestic homicide review and a safeguarding adults review.
The panel is made up of representatives from local district councils, the county council and Norfolk Constabulary.
Image source, Andrew Turner/BBC
The trial heard Mrs Holland turned up at a neighbour’s in a “distressed state” on the night she was murdered
“There were so many missed opportunities to protect my mum from this man,” Mrs Holland’s daughter Kathryn said in a statement issued after the sentencing.
“But she was not seen as vulnerable, she was not protected and he, quite literally, went on to abuse her to death.”
The five-week trial head Scott started lodging with Mrs Holland in August 2020 after they met when he was selling paintings on Gorleston High Street.
Officers were called to her home on the evening of 24 July, after he had thrown pasta around the kitchen.
Scott was ordered to leave, but returned after police had left the scene, before killing Mrs Holland and burning her body on a bonfire in the garden.
Image source, Norfolk Police
The 83-year-old met Scott when he was selling paintings on Gorleston High Street
Kathryn Holland told the court: “I was afraid because, even after a violent incident in which she swore to me she would never let him back, she would let him back.
“I was afraid because I could see so very clearly that my mum did not have the capacity to resist his coercion and she did not have the physical strength or mobility to protect herself.
“I tried to speak up about this.
“I work as a safeguarding lead so I know about risk and safeguarding.
“Yet with this knowledge, I could not convince the local authority to open a safeguarding enquiry.”
‘Bureaucracy’
Scott’s family said in a statement after the sentencing: “We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family of Patricia Holland and cannot imagine the pain the last nearly two years have brought them.
“We also wish to express our deep pain and disappointment at the failures in support and intervention from support services Allan and the family attempted to reach out to throughout his life.
“For decades we have attempted to seek help for our son and brother, and have repeatedly found obstructive bureaucracy, disinterest, and have been turned away.”
Image source, Norfolk Police
Norfolk Constabulary said after sentencing that Allan Scott killed a “vulnerable, well-liked elderly woman”
The reviews are expected to establish lessons that can be learned by the different organisations involved and could lead to policy changes to improve services.
Norfolk County Council and Great Yarmouth Borough Council declined to comment.
A coroner’s inquest looking into Mrs Holland’s murder is due to take place on 12 July.
Mrs Holland was described as a “very charitable woman” who was said by friends and neighbours to have a “heart of gold”.
