The heartbreak of losing his mother in a tragic accident weighs heavily on Martin Holland.

Yet, the thought that no one will be held “accountable” for the death of his 81-year-old mother—struck at a pedestrian crossing by a police escort—remains something he cannot “ever accept.”

Helen Holland, a cherished great-grandmother, was killed two years ago while crossing a street in Earl’s Court, west London. The incident involved a royal outrider escorting Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh.

Earlier this month, a jury at the Old Bailey found PC Christopher Harrison, 68, not guilty of causing death by careless driving.

In a poignant moment when the verdict was delivered, a relative of Helen’s emotionally cried out from the public gallery: “You’ve ruined our family with no consequences.”

Those strong words and even stronger emotions are shared by Helen’s son Martin and her daughter-in-law, Lisa, 55, who have been left reeling not just by the verdict, but also two years of what they claim has been ‘a proper battle against the establishment’.

They allege the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) was slow to launch an investigation and took weeks to appeal for witnesses or gather evidence.

The couple say there are questions around why the royal motorcyclist’s body cam – which would have provided crucial footage of the incident – was ‘turned off’ as Harrison asserted in court, while a second rider’s camera was ‘broken’, as revealed by an IOPC investigator in a letter to them, seen by the Daily Mail. 

Even after Helen’s death, Martin and Lisa claim to have endured an agonising six-month wait to lay her to rest, because of what they allege were attempts by the police to ‘prolong’ the post-mortem process.

For the first time they have detailed the horrific injuries Helen sustained during what Harrison described in court as ‘a tragic accident’.

And they have revealed the untold story of how in the moments after the collision, the Duchess of Edinburgh tried to leave her vehicle to rush towards Helen.

The Hollands are speaking out now, ahead of intended action to sue the Met Police, because they believe the force still have questions to answer over what happened.

Above all else, they want recognition Helen ‘did nothing wrong’ when she stepped onto a pedestrian crossing on West Cromwell Road, in the afternoon of May 10, 2023.

With grief visibly etched on his face, Martin said: ‘We will have to accept the verdict, but we will never accept what happened. We want people to know Harrison might have got a not guilty – but that’s not the whole story’.

The Daily Mail has contacted the IOPC with the claims put forward by the Hollands, and a spokesman has confirmed:

• It took 13 months for the IOPC to receive a pathologist’s report following a ‘special’ post-mortem carried out two weeks after Helen died.
• The IOPC took nine days to put up witness boards at the scene – with one reason given as the need to ‘obtain relevant permission to erect them’.
• The investigation took more than 12 months, because the IOPC was ‘reliant on external reports from third parties’ – which ‘unfortunately caused delays’.
• The IOPC said PC Harrison’s bodyworn camera ‘was not turned on’, while a second camera worn by a different rider ‘was found to be faulty’.

Martin and Lisa, who live in Braintree, Essex, were on holiday in Spain when they received a message saying Helen had been in an accident. 

It was only hours later they realised just how serious the situation was.

‘We came straight back and didn’t leave the hospital for two weeks,’ he recalled.

‘I just remember walking up and down and wondering what the hell I’m going to do with myself. When I saw her, I realised it was serious.

‘Everybody was hoping she would recover, but eventually the consultant called a family meeting and eased us into the news she was unlikely to.’

In court, it was revealed the long-serving officer rode his BMW motorbike at a speed of between 44mph and 58mph in a 30mph zone as he approached the crossing and through a red light for vehicles when the collision occurred. 

Police drivers are allowed to exceed speed limits, but only if it is safe for them to do so. The road has subsequently been reduced to a 20mph limit.

It was also revealed Harrison did not have his lights or siren activated, or blow his whistle, as he approached the pedestrian crossing as is usual protocol.

Prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC said in court: ‘As a police escort motorbike, the defendant was allowed to do things other drivers can’t do, for example, he could exceed the speed limit, and go through red lights, but he still had a duty to other road users, including pedestrians, to make sure that his driving was careful.’ 

Helen – who had been in London visiting her sister, Dorothy – was nearly three metres into the carriageway when she was struck, and according to a witness, flung into the air before landing onto the road ‘like a ragdoll’.

It was previously reported Helen had sustained ‘multiple broken bones and massive internal injuries.’

The Hollands have now shared for the first time the independent medical report – seen by the Daily Mail – which runs over 24 pages and details the full horrific extent of her ‘severe polytrauma’.

Her injuries included brain trauma, damage to her neck ligaments, multiple facial and pelvic fractures as well as soft tissue damage, 11 broken ribs, a tear in her spleen, and internal bleeding.

‘She was black and blue and swollen all over. Her legs were shattered into pieces – the doctors had to pin her legs back together just to get her into the hospital bed,’ Martin recalled emotionally.

At one point while she lay in the road, Helen was clinically dead after her heart stopped – with medics having to perform CPR before transferring her by air ambulance to hospital for more life-saving treatment.

She remained in a coma for two weeks, before doctors said there was nothing more that could be done to help Helen.

In those dark moments waiting in the hospital, the family said there was at least some solace provided by a royal messenger sent by the Duchess of Edinburgh to speak to the family – and they were comforted by what they were told.

Martin said: ‘My brothers were having a conversation with the messenger and he revealed that Sophie had actually tried to get out of the car and help – but security had stopped her from doing so. They took the medical bag from the car and were using that to help resuscitate mum just after she’d been hit.

‘After mum died, Sophie sent a very lovely personal letter to the family, and a beautiful bouquet of flowers to her funeral.’

Lisa, 55, an associate director of a construction engineering firm, added: ‘We know it wasn’t Sophie’s fault – she was just the VIP. Helen loved the royals, we all do. Helen had been up in London for King Charles’ coronation just days before and had been coming to see her sister Dorothy to enjoy everything going on.’

All agreed Helen, the doting matriarch of the family, had been ‘exceptionally healthy’ for her age before the tragedy.

Martin is the second of four sons raised by Helen and his father Charlie, who he recalled put himself through night school to qualify in book-keeping and accountancy.

The boys – Andy, followed by Martin, Trevor and then Mark, were raised in the loving family home in Epping, Essex. After she was widowed, Helen moved to Birchanger, where her 10 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren were regular visitors.

‘She was everything to us,’ recalled Martin. ‘We spent most of our time with her, because dad always worked long hours, but we did see a lot of him. Our family never had any trouble, we had an uncomplicated life.

‘Her house was the meeting place, the hub of the family. We’re kind of lost now, because that was the place for us all to go.’

Lisa said: ‘Helen was amazing and very hands on, not a grandma or great-grandma who would sit on the sofa. There’s photos of her on the floor playing games with the children, teaching them to cook, taking them out for dog walks. She was very active and loved walking her two dogs, Katie and Molly, every day.’

Both remarked how few people realised she was 81, because she ‘looked like a woman of 60’. She had looked after her own mother, who lived to 100, while sister Dorothy is 92. Many in the family believed she had many more years ahead of her.

Up until her death, Helen had also been the principle carer for her youngest son, Mark, 55, who suffered a near-fatal stroke a year before she died.

He was diagnosed with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, an extremely rare autoimmune disorder affecting the nervous system – and had moved in with his mother. Since her death, he has lived on his own.

The rippling effects of Helen’s death are more than evident two years on – and amid the recent verdict, Martin and Lisa feel there are lingering questions over how the police handled the case.

At the front of Martin’s mind is the belief that, given the involvement of an officer, the Met Police and IOPC were ‘happy sweeping it under the carpet’ – and were slow to investigate what had happened.

He and Lisa both remarked how, in the first days after the collision, they had visited the spot where Helen had been hit – but the police had not put up any witness appeal signs in the area.

Martin said:  ‘It’s our opinion that they weren’t even going to bother prosecuting or doing anything, because no one had come forward and the police said there was no video footage. In the end, we told them we would go banging on doors ourselves to find a witness.

‘After the third week, the signs went up and then a lady came forward – she had been on the crossing just three seconds before Helen – as well as another witness, who was out walking her dogs. Then video footage finally appeared, but we were told there was nothing from PC Harrison’s bodycam.

‘If we hadn’t pushed this as a family, we wouldn’t be sitting here talking about this now. I think it may never have even gone to trial, because the police kept telling us there was no evidence.’

There have also been questions around Harrison’s bodycam and why no footage from the device could be obtained. It emerged in court that Harrison had been interviewed by the IOPC two months after the collision, where he revealed he had ‘forgotten’ to switch it on that day.

Martin does not agree. ‘It must have been the first time in his life that he had never switched his bodycam on. We do not believe that at all.’

Adding to their grief, a letter sent by the IOPC to the family six months after the collision stated that a bodycam worn by a second rider had ‘captured the incident’ but was ‘broken’.

In the letter, which has been seen by Daily Mail, the investigator writes that in regards to trying to ascertain the speed at which Harrison was travelling, ‘it was agreed that a frame rate test would be performed on an identical camera to the one that captured the incident (due to the actual camera being broken)’.

Without the crucial footage Harrison’s camera would have provided, both the defence and prosecution had to rely instead on footage taken by the other three motorcyclists in the convoy. 

Harrison asserted in court that the crossing had been clear as he approached it. His defence team alleged that Helen must have been walking at speed or running.

He told the court: ‘It was as if she was there on the road from almost nowhere. I didn’t see her on the footway at all on the approach. I had no vision of her on the footway.’

However Martin and Lisa said this is contradicted by video footage taken on another rider’s body cam, which was only shown once to the jury and reveals Helen taking several steps into the road before the collision.

‘You can see Helen taking at least four steps before she was hit,’ explained Lisa of the footage, which has been seen by Daily Mail and taken from a distance. ‘She’s walking, not running – Helen would never have taken such a risk. She knew the road, her sister had lived there for five years. Imagine how many times she must have crossed that road.’

Eyewitness Diana Cetara, 71, who read a statement out at court, was standing at the corner of the crossing when events unfolded – and she too asserted that Helen was walking, not running. 

She told the Daily Mail: ‘This guy came like a flash and hit her. She was walking slowly, much like people of our age. I’m 71 and I don’t run anymore.

‘She walked slowly. She was waiting until the green man came before she started to cross the road. There was another lady in front of her.’

In court, the defence also theorised that Helen could have been ‘drunk’, ‘suicidal’ or even have ‘died’ before she was hit at the crossing – claims that the family found ‘shocking’ and ‘very hurtful’.

Those same claims were the reason behind the IOPC requesting a second post-mortem after Helen’s death, Lisa and Martin added, leading to months of delay before her funeral and cremation could take place.

Lisa said: ‘We couldn’t move on from our grief for months because we were waiting for the police coroner to finish their enquiries. We believe the police prolonged everything from the moment she was hit on the road.’

Martin added: ‘Everybody needs to tell their kids that the green light at a crossing is no longer safe. 

‘It happened to be my mum, but it could have been anyone. It could have been someone’s little child.’

The family has called on the government to change the way VIPs are escorted and in the aftermath of Helen’s death, the couple to wrote to then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. 

He responded with a letter, which the family has shared with Daily Mail, saying that he hoped the IOPC probe would bring ‘greater clarity and understanding’.

Following the not guilty verdict, the family remain resolute on taking legal action against the Met Police. 

‘I didn’t expect the jury to let him off with careless driving, because it was careless at the very least,’ said Martin. ‘I need everybody to know this was not my mum’s fault. Nobody has been held accountable for her death and that’s not right, because she didn’t do anything wrong.

‘We never wanted Harrison to be severely punished, but we did want him to put his hands up and say he made a mistake.

‘Instead, they made it all out to be her fault. That’s something we will never accept’.

In a statement, the IOPC addressed the points highlighted by the Hollands.

It confirmed a special post-mortem was carried out on June 5,2023, but there were ‘delays’ in receiving the pathologist’s report. The IOPC finally received this 14 months later on July 1, 2024.

Regarding the claim that the IOPC was slow to launch an investigation, a spokesperson said: ‘Witness boards were put up in the week following the incident – Friday, May 19. It takes time to arrange and order the witness boards, as well as obtaining the relevant permission to allow us to erect them.’

The investigation overall took ‘just over 12 months’ to conclude. The IOPC said that it was reliant on ‘external reports from third parties’, including ‘the report by the Met’s forensic collision investigation unit (FCIU) which was received in January 2024, a report from a police driving expert from another force, which we obtained in March 2024, and the pathologist’s report, which we only received in July 2024.’

It added: ‘While the timing of receiving these reports were outside of our control, this did unfortunately cause delays to our investigation.’

As for the ‘broken’ camera worn by a second rider, the FCIU used ‘an identical bodyworn camera to examine so they could capture the frame rate of the device’ as a way of determining the speed at which Harrison was travelling.

‘It was agreed by us that this was OK as the two devices were identical and would therefore produce the same data under the same conditions,’ the IOPC spokesperson added.

The IOPC also confirmed PC Harrison may still face a hearing for gross misconduct. 

In a statement, a spokesperson said: ‘At the end of our investigation, we also found that PC Harrison should face a misconduct hearing. 

‘Following the officer’s acquittal, we are in the process of reviewing this decision. This review is ongoing and we will be liaising with the Met and other parties prior to finalising the decision.’

Met Police meanwhile confirmed that PC Harrison was withdrawn from his Special Escort Group duties immediately after the collision and has not returned to a public-facing role since.

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Service said: ‘We would once again like to express our condolences to the family of Helen Holland.

‘The actions of PC Christopher Harrison were independently investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct. This was followed by a trial, at which PC Harrison’s evidence was considered by a jury, and he was found not guilty. We respect that verdict.

‘PC Harrison will remain on restricted duties while we await direction from the IOPC about any future misconduct proceedings. We cannot comment on any stated intention by Mrs Holland’s family to bring legal proceedings against the Met.’

Buckingham Palace declined to comment.