Killer on bail murdered second victim

By Sally Chidzoy
BBC East Home Affairs Correspondent

Bill O'Connor and Danny Hathaway were murdered in 2007

Killer Tony Holland was a man who thought he could get away with murder twice - a man who was on police bail when he murdered for a second time.

Holland's conviction at Ipswich Crown Court has led the Crown Prosecution Service to say it will review the way it handled this case.

Under questioning by detectives in Northamptonshire and Suffolk he remained silent.

The first time detectives heard the 23-year-old speak was when he took to the stand at his trial.

He claimed two other men must have been responsible for the deaths.

Alibi bid

Tony Holland knew both his victims. A traveller, he lived in a caravan on sites across East Anglia.

He killed for money and he killed for revenge.

His Transit van was his choice of murder scene and when police seized his four transit vans they found a hammer, a metal bar, a pickaxe handle, a rope, boxing gloves, a knife and a spade.

His first victim was Danny Hathaway, a 44-year-old traveller who lived with his partner Diane Furey and their two young children in a converted double decker bus at a site in Corby, Northamptonshire.

Mr Hathaway worked as a mechanic and was good at making money.

We've clearly got to go back and review decisions that were made especially when they had the consequences that they did Peter Gair, CPS

He did business with Holland who arranged a meeting with him using a fictitious land deal as the bait.

Mr Hathaway was carrying a few thousand pounds in cash when the pair met in February 2007.

Police believe that within minutes he was murdered in Holland's van.

Holland then attempted to use Ms Furey as his alibi and asked her where Mr Hathaway was as they were due to meet.

He stood and watched her as she twice tried to call him on her mobile. Mr Hathaway's body has never been found.

Police have searched many places and believe it may be in water somewhere between King's Lynn and Peterborough.

Police were quickly on to Holland. They found Mr Hathaway's blood in his van - and in the blood stain they found Holland's fingerprint.

Holland was arrested and given police bail pending the result of forensic tests.

No body

Because there was no body, the Crown Prosecution Service in Northampton twice told police there was insufficient evidence to charge Holland.

At one stage police bail was cancelled and later reinstated. It did not stop Holland plotting his next murder.

Two months after Mr Hathaway went missing, Holland killed Bill O'Connor in broad daylight at the rear of a row of shops in Bury St Edmunds.

Tony Holland murdered Danny Hathaway and Bill O'Connor

Holland had tried to lure his victim into his van, but Mr O'Connor quickly jumped out of the vehicle and was stabbed eight times in the heart and head.

Holland's van was picked up by CCTV cameras across Bury St Edmunds, before and after the killing.

The prosecution said Holland wanted Mr O'Connor dead for fancying his fiancee.

A week before the killing, Holland had approached Mr O'Connor's mother asking where he was.

He even offered money to his mother for his mobile number.

When O'Connor was killed his mother Josephine remembered Holland and told police. It was a crucial lead.

Suffolk Police arrested Holland and the CPS in Ipswich made a quick decision to charge him.

Northamptonshire Police then charged him with killing Mr Hathaway.

Police said Holland learned lessons from the first murder which he put to use on the second.

No blood was found in the van after the second killing, but forensic scientists found fibres linking Holland to the killing.

'Huge risk'

There were also CCTV sightings, mobile phone traces and number plate recognition records.

Without a body, Northamptonshire Police contacted more than 1,300 organisations including health providers and utility companies in a bid to establish that Mr Hathaway was dead and not simply missing.

The family of Mr O'Connor have at least been able to properly mourn his death, but for the family of Mr Hathaway the hurt continues.

His father Kenneth said: "It's been very very hard for me but, the hardest of all, of course, has been for Diane.

"They'd been together for about 15 years and they had two children, Samuel and Ellie."

Police do not believe Holland acted alone in disposing of Mr Hathaway's body and that there are people who know what happened.

The Crown Prosecution Service told the BBC there is no doubt that Tony Holland would pose a "huge risk to the public if he were given his liberty".

Exactly why he was freed after his arrest in Northamptonshire will now be reviewed.

Peter Gair, of the Crown Prosecution Service in Suffolk, told the BBC: "We've clearly got to go back and review decisions that were made especially when they had the consequences that they did.

"We will obviously look at that but you have to remember that one person's decision objectively justified may not necessarily have been the right one but it's a justifiable decision."