Therese Holland (right) with her daughter Karen

Sidcup mum raises £1,000 to honour son

Robin Cottle, Reporter Friday, July 27, 2012
4:40 PM

The mother of a Sidcup man who was killed with one punch outside a nightclub has raised £1,000 for a charity which has supported her since his death.

Robert Holland was 36 when he died in October last year by cage-fighter Liam Rockley on a business trip to Nottingham.

Therese Holland has been supported by Support after Murder and Manslaughter (SAMM) and she put on a raffle for friends and family to repay the favour.

The 61-year-old, of Chester Road, said: “I can’t believe the support we’ve received from people. I thought we’d do well to make £500.

“It shows how much people have rallied around us in our time of need and also what a brilliant cause this is.

“We sold 125 tickets and had roughly 30 donated prizes. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it, it was absolutely spectacular.”

Prizes included tickets to meet boyband JLS, a three-month gym membership and a bracelet which was donated by the manager of SWAG in Bluewater Shopping Centre, Graeme Marsh.

Rockley was sentenced to three and a half years in jail in February, a sentence which Mrs Holland believes is too lenient, leading her to campaign for tougher sentences for one punch killings.

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