Norfolk murder victim's daughter found blood on front door

Kathryn Holland had gone to visit her mum, Pat Holland at the Gorleston home she lived at with Allan Scott, a homeless man, who her mother let stay with her after she had taken pity on him.

Scott, who the prosecution say became aggressive and violent towards Mrs Holland, has gone on trial at Norwich Crown Court accused of murdering Mrs Holland sometime between July 24 2021 and July 25 2021.

Mrs Holland's partial remains were later found in a bonfire that had been lit at her home in Lowestoft Road, Gorleston.

Giving evidence on Tuesday (February 28) Mrs Holland's daughter Kathryn said she had last spoken to her mum on the phone on July 24 and had popped over to her home to drop off a paper and tins of fish for a seagull her mum had previously befriended on Sunday, July 25.

Before she went over, Kathryn said she had phoned her mum "a couple of times" but could not get through as the fax machine was connected to the landline.

She said as she got to the door she saw there was "a smear of blood on the bottom of the handle".

Kathryn, who had been talking to a friend on the phone at the time, said: "I just went quiet.

"I said 'there's blood on the door, I'm going to call the police'."

The witness told David Spens KC, prosecuting, that Scott answered the door but that she was "just very panicked".

Kathryn said she asked Scott: "Where's my mum Allan?"

She said Scott did not know where she was and that she had "gone out already".

Kathryn asked him why there was blood on the door but Scott said "it wasn't blood, it was tomato sauce".

But she said it was not tomato sauce and she "knows what blood looks like".

Scott then told Kathryn that her mum had "thrown a pot at him" which cut him and it must have been from that.

The jury heard she became more worried after she saw her mother's walking frame, which she needed to get about, beside him.

Kathryn said Scott tried to say she had used another walker but she knew that her mum had "given her spare walker away".

She "walked away" and called 999 but by the time she returned with an officer "the blood had been wiped off" the door and her mother's walking frame put in her bedroom as Scott had thought "it was in the way".

She said Scott told police Mrs Holland should be back "about 5pm I believe" and officers made arrangements to return to the property later.

Kathryn said she was "shaking" and in a "panic".

She said: "I felt unsettled and anxious and just wanted to find out where my mum was because I was really worried."

The court heard Kathryn spent the afternoon trying to find her mum and later returned with the police to "check every room" and "every cupboard".

When officers found a piece of carpet with "ashes beneath it", Scott was asked by police if he had been "having a fire".

Scott, who called Mrs Holland Winnie, said: "Me and Winnie had been burning the piano."

Scott, of no fixed address, but formerly of Lowestoft Road, Gorleston, denies murder.

The trial continues.

My mum was 'really frightened' of lodger

The jury was told Patricia Holland had been "really scared" of her lodger Allan Scott.

Giving evidence on Tuesday (February 28) Mrs Holland's daughter Kathryn said after Scott moved in her mum would tell her "he drinks a lot".

She said her mum told her that when Scott drinks "you've just not seen anything like it" with his behaviour getting "very extreme" with him "shouting and swearing".

Kathryn said there was a time her mum was "really frightened" because he had tied some string around her finger.

She said Mrs Holland told her "she knew he (Scott) needed to go and was going to get him out".

But heading towards July 2021 she said "extreme angry outbursts" were happening more often.

On one occasion after she told Scott she wanted him to leave "he (Scott) cut himself with a knife and an ambulance was called".

She said her mum had told her Scott "really loves to play the piano" and she "saw that as his talent".

Kathryn said she told her mum "if he moves out he can have the piano because he needed it more than I did".

"I really wanted him to move out of mum's house."