He cruelly killed her kittens, puppy and hamsters
A MUM whose daughter was cut into 200 pieces by her husband after he blended up her hamster and killed her dog says he could have been stopped.
Holly Bramley married Nicholas Metson in 2021, after which he cut the 26-year-old off from her family – and brutally murdered her 18 months later.
Her husband – who she met in 2016 – convinced Holly to sever contact and block relatives on social media.
Holly’s mum Annette said the family weren’t invited to the wedding – and didn’t even know it was happening.
When Metson horrifically killed her hamsters and puppy, Holly reported him to the police.
Shockingly, he persuaded her to drop the complaint and say she had done it herself.
Annette said previously: “Holly very rarely came home, but one day she turned up at our door devastated, sobbing and saying he had killed their puppy.
“While Holly was in the shower, he’d put her little dog in the washing machine and turned it on. Holly found the dog and managed to break open the washing machine and pull it out, but he took the dog off her and put it in the shower with the water over its face until it drowned.
“I can’t explain how terrified I was for her safety. I begged her to never go back.”
Over the years, Holly would come home to Annette with more and more horrific tales of Metson’s abuse.
Three kittens had been drowned in the kitchen and one of Holly’s hamsters was put in a food blender.
On one occasion, she fled to the police station with her rabbits after another hamster was killed by being put into a microwave.
DISTURBING RIVER FIND
Eventually, Metson stabbed Holly, 26, four times at their high-rise flat.
He then horrifically cut her into 224 parts and kept her remains in the kitchen larder for a week.
Her decapitated body was found in shopping bags floating in the River Witham, near Lincoln, by a horrified member of the public.
Metson admitted her murder and was sentenced to 19 years in jail.
He paid his friend Joshua Hancock £50 to help dispose of his wife’s body parts after he kept them hidden in the couple’s flat for nearly a week.
Hancock, also 28, admitted helping to dispose of the body and got three years and three months.
Judge Simon Hirst told the sentencing hearing Metson had never given a reason for why he had killed his wife.
Annette is now campaigning for Holly’s Law, which would create a nationwide animal cruelty registry that lists individuals known for harming or killing animals.
“When Emma died I lost five years of my life grieving,” Annette said.
“When we lost Holly I put my energy into this as a way to cope. Any help that will save somebody’s life is imperative.
“We tried to save Holly, I tried desperately. Her murderer was a man routinely known to cause harm to and kill the family pets. It eventually escalated in his actions to take Holly’s life.
“There were red flags around him about animal cruelty and our fears grew. We had formed an opinion of him from the start, which he took offence at.
“He got his claws into Holly pretty quickly by isolating her and convincing her that he was the only person she could rely on.”
Annette and her husband, Mick, 65, a former soldier in the Royal Parachute regiment, ordered Holly to stop seeing Metson – and banned him from their home.
But within months Holly had arranged to move in with him and left the family home without saying goodbye leaving Annette “heartbroken”.
At first, Annette knew where the couple lived and would encourage the friends and family Holly had not yet cut off to visit the pair and check she was ok.
But after they moved house in 2021, Annette never saw her daughter again before her tragic death.
HUSBAND’S SICK LIES
The horror unfolded in 2023 when police were scrambled to the home following a concern for welfare report.
Metson callously claimed his wife had attacked him before leaving the flat to meet with two mental health workers.
Although the flat smelt of bleach and there were bloodstained sheets in the bath and a saw on the kitchen floor, officers left.
When they exposed Metson’s version of events as a lie, police returned later that day to find the saw had been stashed in a cupboard.
Sickeningly, the killer joked Holly “might be hiding under the bed”.
The following day, a member of the public spotted the plastic bags floating in the river.
Holly’s head had been severed and shaved, with a further 224 remains fished from the water.
A pathologist found four wounds consistent with a sharp incision but due to the brutality of the dismemberment, a cause of death could not be established.
Following the murder, heartless Metson withdrew £50 from his wife’s bank account and made a number of chilling searches.
These included “What benefits do I get if my wife has died” and “Can someone haunt me after they die”.
Police also found CCTV showing Metson moving his wife’s remains from their 14th floor home using a Morrison’s shopping trolley.
Annette described her daughter as a lovely, bubbly girl who always wanted to be a mother.
She wears a lanyard with a picture of Holly as a youngster, the only photo she has since “he (Metson) must have got rid of them”.
Her petition for an animal cruelty register has so far reached 50,765 signatures and she hopes it will be passed like Clare’s Law, which allows police to release information about any previous history of violence or abuse a person might have.
According to the RSPCA, many domestic abuse victims report that their pets are also abused as a way for perpetrators to coerce, control, or punish.
Annette and her family hope that the petition will act as a catalyst for much-needed change — and it has had strong support, with more than 50,000 signatures. “I am also a survivor of domestic abuse,” she said.
“It is the least I can do after Holly’s death.”
Detective Chief Inspector Rachael Cox, lead for domestic abuse at Lincolnshire Police, said: “We are indebted to Annette. Despite her grief she is determined to work with us to help us reach those suffering abuse.
“She is an inspiration and a reminder of why we do this job
“We are here to protect people and will continue to do all we can to raise awareness of what abuse is and to make sure everyone knows how they can get help even if they don’t feel they can approach the police to report yet.”
