Holly Bramley, 26, was killed and dismembered by her husband Nicholas Metson, 28
A husband who murdered his wife before chopping her into more than 200 pieces had previously killed her pets in a variety of horrific ways.
Nicholas Metson, 28, stabbed Holly Bramley, 26, at least four times in March 2023 before dismembering her body and storing her body parts in the kitchen larder of a flat they shared in Shuttlesworth, Stamp End, Lincoln.
He later joked with police officers that she ‘might be hiding under the bed’ when they came to investigate her disappearance, Lincoln Crown Court was told.
Metson, described as an ‘evil monster’ by his victim’s family, then offered his school friend Joshua Hancock £50 to help with a ‘job’, which, it transpired, involved dumping Ms Bramley’s remains in the River Witham in Bassingham.
Some of her body parts were found in the river on March 25 by a member of the public, who initially thought they belonged to an animal until he noticed a human hand.
The discovery was made more than a week after she was last seen walking into her flat on March 17.
Metson had a history of being cruel to animals, the court heard, and according to the Daily Mail, had previously killed their pets in brutal ways in order to ‘punish’ Ms Bramley.
Ms Bramley’s family said Metson prevented his wife from seeing her family (Picture: Lincolnshire Live/MEN Media)
A source told the publication Metson once put her new puppy in a washing machine, leaving her to find the dead dog inside with the drum still spinning.
He also allegedly killed her hamsters by putting them in a food blender and microwave.
The source said Ms Bramley once fled to a police stations with her pet rabbits to escape him.
Ms Bramley’s mother Annette described Metson as an ‘evil monster’ who had convinced his wife that her family were abusive.
She said he had caused them ‘unimaginable pain’.
Annette described her daughter as ‘beautiful, kind and loving’, and added: ‘Her last moments being filled with pain will haunt us forever.
‘Her life was taken by someone who quite clearly has no regard for human life.
Ms Bramley was described as ‘beautiful, kind and loving’ by her mother (Picture: Lincolnshire Police/SWNS)
‘We were prevented from seeing Holly in the years leading up to her murder. We were prevented from seeing her before her death and due to his monstrous actions, he made sure we were prevented from seeing her after her death.’
The Mail source, meanwhile, said: ‘She told us she loved him, but the first time I met him I took an instant dislike to him. There was just something about him.’
The court heard the pair had only been married 16 months when Metson killed Ms Bramley and were on the verge of separating.
While Ms Bramley was missing and before her remains were found, Lincolnshire Police went to flat the couple shared.
Metson told officers his wife had left their home on March 19 with two members of a local mental health crisis team – a claim which police soon learnt was a lie.
Police noticed a ‘strong smell of bleach and ammonia’ in the flat, noticed a saw on a towel, bloodstained sheets in their bathroom and a large bloodstain on their bedroom floor.
He was soon arrested and charged with her murder and perverting the course of justice.
Metson allegedly had a history of cruelty against animals (Picture: Lincolnshire Police/SWNS)
Metson initially denied killing his wife but changed his plea to guilty on February 23. He had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to pervert the course of justice by disposing Ms Bramley’s body.
A search of his mobile phone showed he’d made Google searches whichincluded ‘How to get rid of a dead body’, ‘What benefits can I get if my wife dies’ and ‘Does God forgive murder’.
Hancock was arrested on April 5 and charged with obstructing a coroner.
In the days following the murder of his wife, Metson used her Facebook account to message her friends and trick them into thinking she was still alive.
He tried to convince them that she had left him and moved to Manchester while sending himself money from her bank account.
CCTV searches showed Metson moving a large amount of bags from his flat on the 14th floor into a lift before putting them into his Peugeot in the early hours of March 25.
The court heard some of Ms Bramley’s remains, including parts of her heart, have never been recovered.
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Allison Summers KC, defending Metson, said in mitigation that he had autism and learning difficulties, doesn’t make friends and is ‘incapable of seeing the world from the perspective of anyone but himself’.
‘For all the horror of what this man did, he is nevertheless himself a vulnerable man and that is why Holly was his designated carer.’
Hancock pleaded guilty to obstructing a coroner in the execution of his duty by helping to dispose of Ms Bramley’s body.
Raglan Ashton, defending Hancock, said his client, who also has autism and learning difficulties, had not known what the job entailed and ‘bitterly regrets his involvement’.
Addressing Metson, Ms Bramley’s sister Sarah-Jayne Lindop, said she regretted the ‘day you ever laid eyes on our sister’.
‘You stole Holly’s life in March 2023, but you stole her from our life many years before that.
‘You took her from a caring and loving family and on the occasions when she did make her way back home or when you told her she wasn’t good enough or pretty enough, you lured her back using the one thing she wanted most in the world – to be a mother.
‘We are shattered people who have lived the last 12 months as shells of the people we were before this.
‘We have lost all hope of ever getting our Holly home, you carelessly took her life and threw her away like she was nothing, when to us she was everything.’
Judge Simon Hirst said: ‘It will be a source of enormous frustration to the family of Holly that they will never be told how and why Holly died.’
He adjourned sentencing for both men until Monday.
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