In a heinous murder that has shocked the UK, a 28-year-old man stabbed his wife to death, chopped her body in over 200 pieces and stored them in his kitchen for a week before dumping them in a river with the help of a friend.

Nicholas Metson, 28, admitted on Friday to murdering his wife Holly Bramley, 26, in March after weeks of denying the allegations, even joking with police officers who came looking for her that she “might be hiding under the bed”.

“Got £50 for disposing of a body”

Metson likely stabbed his wife several times in the bedroom and chopped the body in the bathroom. He then put the pieces in plastic bags and stored them in a kitchen larder, a cold area for storage of food, before getting rid of them.

Almost a week later and before police arrived at his door, he paid his friend £50 to help him dispose of the body parts. “Just got £50 for disposing of a body,” the friend wrote in a text message, the court was told.

A day later, plastic bags were discovered floating in the Witham river by a morning walker. One of the bags had a human hand and another Ms Bramley shaved head. In total, divers found 224 body parts with some still missing. The body was chopped in such a way that it was impossible to find a cause of death, the court was told.

“Evil monster”

Ms Bramley’s mother told the court that her daughter had been married for just 16 months and the “evil monster” didn’t allow her to meet her family for years and the couple were on the verge of separating when he killed her, she said.

After murdering his wife, he searched for questions like “What benefits do I get if my wife has died” and “Can someone haunt me after they die?”.

Ms Bramley had once fled her home with her pet rabbits and sought police help after he killed her hamsters by putting them in a food blender and the microwave oven. He also put her new puppy in a washing machine, only for Ms Bramley to find the dead animal spinning inside the machine.

Gruesome murder

On March 24, Lincolnshire Police reached the couple’s home for a welfare check on Ms Bramley after receiving distress reports. When Metson answered the door, he claimed he was a victim of domestic abuse by his wife and showed the policemen a bite mark on his arm.

The wound occurred when Ms Bramley tried to free herself from her husband as she was killed a few days earlier, a UK court was told.

Policemen also found blood-soaked sheets in the bathtub, several dark sports on the floor and a strong smell of ammonia and bleach throughout the house. Metson later told police his wife had left with a women’s support group a few days before.

The killer, who is to be sentenced on Monday, has not revealed how and why he killed his wife. His lawyer, however, claimed that his diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder was a factor in the murder.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has used the Telangana phone tapping row to launch a two-pronged attack on the Bharat Rashtra Samithi and the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha election. Addressing a rally in Telangana’s Rangrareddy district yesterday, Mr Gandhi said, “What your former Chief Minister (K Chandrashekar Rao) did here, the Prime Minister and the BJP is doing in Delhi, Enforcement Directorate has become Extortion Directorate.”

Mr Gandhi’s remarks on the central agency are part of the Opposition’s charge at the Narendra Modi government, accusing it of misusing probe agencies for political objectives. Leaders of the INDIA bloc hit out at the Centre on this issue during a rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest in a money laundering case.   

The KCR-led BRS government is at the centre of a massive controversy in the wake of allegations that senior police officers tapped the phones of Opposition leaders, including current Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, and several celebrities and businessmen.

Several senior police officers have been arrested after Mr Reddy ordered an investigation into the matter. It is also alleged that surveillance of businessmen was used to blackmail them into contributing to the BRS party fund.

The Congress and the BJP have hit out at the BRS as the shocking allegations come to the fore.

Former minister and KCR’s son KT Rama Rao has suggested that if any phone-tapping occurred, it may have been limited to a few troublemakers or criminals. The Congress, he said, was “exaggerating it as an international scam”, he said at a party meeting.

This drew a sharp response from the Chief Minister, who said KTR was “shamelessly admitting” to tapping phones and called for accountability.

BJP MP from Telangana and Union minister G Kishan Reddy has said the Election Commission should rethink BRS’ recognition in the light of the allegations. “This is not an ordinary case. It is a very serious matter. This is not only a political vindictive action and not just a phone tapping matter for political benefit. But, a violation of personal privacy, respect of individuals and concerned rules had happened,” he told reporters here.

The 17 seats of Telangana are voting in a single phase on May 13. In the 2019 elections, the BRS had won nine seats, the BJP four, the Congress three and Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM one. With the Congress coming to power with a thumping win in the state polls last year, the party is looking to up its tally this general election.

In his address in Rangareddy, Mr Gandhi said “everyone in Telangana knows that Congress is fulfilling promises”. “The unemployment in the country is the highest in 40 years, but the Telangana government has given government jobs to 30,000 people and 50,000 more people will get jobs,” he said.

Centenarians in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry cast postal votes without age proof. Anjalai Rayappan, 100, voted secretly. Ramakkal Naidu, 101, supports AIADMK. S Angappan, 103, died post-enrollment for postal voting.