Oxford Grad killed on the streets of Berlin by a Neo-Nazi ‘because he was English’
Luke Holland was shot in the stomache and left to die by Rolf Zielezinski because he was a 'foreigner'
The grieving parents of murdered Oxford graduate Luke Holland were forced to listen to the German neo-Nazi who murdered their only son claim he did it because he was English.
Rolf Zielezinski, 63, was jailed for the murder, which occurred last September, in a German court today.
Luke Holland, 31, was shot in the stomach with a shotgun after leaving a Berlin nightclub at 6am and left to die by Zielezinski
The Oxford grad died in a pool of his own blood on a foreign street, the court heard.
Eye witnesses saw Zielezinski calmly walking away from the body after the fatal shot was fired
A few weeks before the murder last Zielezinski had been involved in a heated row with 'foreigners' in a nearby bar.
When police searched the murderer’s home they found more ammunition for the gun that killed Luke and walls covered in illegal memorabilia celebrating the Nazis.
Zielezinski, a father-of-three, was jailed for 11-and-a-half years after being found guilty of murder following a trial which began in March.
But prosecution team at Berlin Regional Court did not prove it was a hate crime, meaning the motivation behind Zielezinski’s murder will go unpunished.
When the neo –Nazi was confronted in the dock by Mr Holland's mother, who showed him a photo of her dead son, the callous killer simply shrugged at her, smiled, and replied: “English”.
Earlier, Mr Holland's devastated father also bravely faced Zielezinski across the courtroom and begged him to explain why he had killed their only child.
Clutching the last photo of his son, Phil Holland, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, said: 'This photograph taken by us is the last time we saw Luke alive, eight weeks before he died.
“Why did you kill our son, our only child, a person you had never seen before?”
A visibly shaken Mr Holland continued:
“Did you not like his shirt, his hairstyle or was it because you heard him speaking English on his mobile phone?
“How would you feel if I murdered your three sons? What sentence would you ask the court to give me?
“You killed him in a coward's way and are too much of a coward to admit it.”
Mrs Holland, a former council officer, today addressed the court and told the judging panel how Zielezinski had devastated their lives.
She told them: “With Luke gone, we are struggling to find a purpose to our lives.
“'All of our joy has been ripped from us. Each day the constant, ceaseless pain and grief.
“How can we ever remove the image of our son's dying body, bleeding to death, all alone on a strange street corner?
“I think, if you can die of a broken heart, then Phil and I are surely dying day by long painful day.
“Just trying to live through each day is exhausting, the mental pain and stress unbelievably draining, all of our pleasure in life now gone.
related stories
“Nothing matters any more. We cannot find the will to live our lives without Luke.
“We will never come to terms with his cruel, malicious murder; murdered by that sly, evil, coward.”