Jail for son who murdered father

Benjamin Holden covered up the murder of his father for seven weeks

A television executive who murdered his wealthy father and hid the body in a rubbish bin in October last year has been jailed for life.

Benjamin Holding, 29, from Aberdeenshire, accessed his father's bank accounts just an hour after battering the 70-year-old man to death.

He later claimed he was simply spending his "rightful inheritance".

A judge at the High Court in Edinburgh said Holding must spend at least 15 years in jail.

At an earlier hearing, Holding admitted pushing his father, retired oil executive Michael Holding, to the ground on 13 October last year then repeatedly bashing his head against the floor and a metal bowl.

Fireworks party

Holding also admitted fraud and attempting to defeat the ends of justice by trying to cover up the murder. He wrapped the body in a sheet and dumped it head-first in a rubbish bin at their home in Inchmarlo, Banchory, Aberdeenshire, where it lay for seven weeks.

Holding, a business development executive for Scottish Television, then spent a total of £30,000 of his father's money, the court heard.

He spent £17,000 on a Mk3 BMW, £7,000 on his father's credit cards and even hosted a fireworks party at the house while his father's body lay undiscovered in a shed.

He also sent bogus e-mails pretending to be his father and claiming he was elsewhere in the UK.

Holding, who was in financial difficulties, claimed he had been driven to the killing by his "domineering" father who he said viewed him as a failure.

Defence advocate David Moggach said that in the weeks leading up to the "tragic crime", Holding had been "living a lie" - telling his wife and father he had successfully bought a house.

The shock and distress you have caused to friends and family must be considerable. You will have to live with that guilt Sheriff Roger Craik QC Temporary judge

On the day of the murder, Holding confessed to his wife there had been a problem with the house purchase and agreed to tell his father they would need to stay on.

He returned to the home at about 1400 BST and got into an argument with his father, before knocking him to the ground.

Realising his father was dead, Holding wrapped the body and placed it in a wheelie bin, hiding the bin under tarpaulin and a bag of cement in a locked shed at the house.

He then destroyed evidence by washing clothes and cleaning out the utility room where Mr Holding senior died.

Advocate depute Alastair Brown, prosecuting, said Mr Holding senior had bailed his son out of debt on a number of occasions before his death, even paying off his £17,000 student loans.

After the murder, Holding told family members his father had gone to England to help another son, Stephen, and had taken an extended holiday.

They had later been "surprised and distressed" that Mr Holding senior had apparently ignored the first anniversary of his wife's death, said Mr Brown. "The reality was that he himself was dead by then," he added.

Alerted police

On 6 December, Holding's wife had opened mail and a bank statement belonging to Mr Holding senior. It revealed his bank cards had been used in Banchory just days before.

Mrs Holding confronted her husband and he confessed to killing his father. She called her mother who alerted police.

Holding told them: "Two months ago I had an argument with my father. I killed him and he's in the shed".

Detectives searched the shed and found the bin covered in a paint sheet and an awning. When they opened it they found Mr Holding, swathed in a piece of cloth.

Sentencing Holding, temporary judge Sheriff Roger Craik QC said: "The shock and distress you have caused to friends and family must be considerable. You will have to live with that guilt.

"Given the grave and callous nature of the killing and aftermath, a sentence towards the top end of culpability would seem to be appropriate."