My daughter was murdered by her evil ex who sent us chilling ‘I warned you all' text minutes before salon attack
FAMILY TORMENT My daughter was murdered by her evil ex who sent us chilling 'I warned you all' text minutes before salon attack
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NICK and Amanda Gazzard knew they had lost their daughter when the surgeon who battled for hours to save her life stood shaking in front of them at the hospital.
Nick told The Sun: 'He didn't need to say anything - it was written all over the poor man's face."
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Hollie Gazzard had repeatedly tried to break up with Asher Maslin
Credit: PA:Press Association
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On the day she died, Hollie had been expecting Maslin to turn up at her salon
Credit: Rex Features
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Nick Gazzard appearing on This Morning alongside his daughter Chloe
Credit: Rex Features
His beautiful daughter Hollie was just 20 when her jealous, crazed boyfriend launched a frenzied knife attack on her while she cut a client's hair at a beauty salon in Gloucester on February 18, 2014.
Obsessed Asher Maslin stabbed her 14 times in front of horrified salon staff and customers after she repeatedly tried to break up with him.
Hollie had met Maslin, 21, in a bar where she also worked a year earlier, but he soon became controlling.
Chilling CCTV footage showed him selling his DVD player to get money to buy the 12-inch kitchen knife used to attack Hollie.
He then bombarded the young hairdresser with abusive texts, including one that said: 'I don't want to get f***ing violent as I'll take it too far."
Two days later, he texted her sister Chloe's partner, saying: 'I warned you all.'
Minutes later, he walked into the salon and killed her.
In July 2014, Maslin received a 24-year life sentence for Hollie's murder at Gloucester Crown Court.
Hollie's father, Nick, a former professional footballer, spoke to The Sun about the tragedy that tore his family apart.
He said the 'strain' of Hollie's brutal murder caused his marriage to his wife, Amanda, to break down, resulting in them divorcing two years ago.
Stalked: Murder In Slow Motion - CCTV shows Asher Maslin selling DVD player to buy the 12-inch knife used to attack Hollie Gazzard
He says: 'The impact of Hollie's death on all of us was, unsurprisingly, very, very difficult.
'I have always been a very positive kind of person, so my way of trying to deal with it was to throw myself into educating the public about the warning signs to look for in a toxic, controlling relationship.
'I set up a trust in Hollie's name, and I go around the country giving talks, offering advice.
'Amanda stayed in the background, and over time, we found we were travelling down different paths.
"The strain of trying to somehow come to terms with Hollie's death affected our marriage.
'We are still as close as ever to Hollie's older sister, Chloe, who now has two children of her own, and the three of them are mine and Amanda's lives now.
'For Chloe, losing Hollie has been especially hard. In an instant, she lost her best friend, her soulmate, the person she could confide in about anything.
'After Hollie's death, Chloe struggled, but somehow she managed to come through it, and I'm so proud of her.
"She's got two daughters, and they are our focus now.'
'Totally fixated'
Nick said Hollie was 'a joy to be a father to'.
He explained that she loved sports and threw herself into every activity she could.
She was initially a very good footballer, but as she grew through her teens, she became more interested in fashion, hair and make-up.
It soon became clear to Nick, like many girls of that age, that this would be the route she was going to go down.
He continued: 'She was a quick learner and a hard worker.
'Hollie was ambitious too, and she set her sights on working in a hair salon on cruise ships a year or so before she was killed."
It is so heartbreaking to think that if she'd stuck to her dreams and gone to sea, she'd have been safe from him, and she might still be alive today
Nick Gazzard
She had found an opening and was invited to go down to London to train for cruise ship salon work.
But while Hollie was in the capital, Maslin followed her there and started giving her a hard time for wanting to take the job.
Nick explained: 'He somehow managed to persuade her to ditch her dreams and stay in Gloucester.
"It is so heartbreaking to think that if she'd stuck to her dreams and gone to sea, she'd have been safe from him, and she might still be alive today.
'Even though she decided to stay in Gloucester working as a hairdresser, she did repeatedly break up with him because of his behaviour, but he refused to let her go.
'Wherever she went, he'd find her and follow her, threaten her and make her life a misery. He just would not let her go.
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Fringe Benefits hair salon in Gloucester where Hollie was brutally stabbed to death
Credit: Rex Features
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Nick urged parents concerned their daughter might be in an unhealthy relationship to get them to open up
Credit: INSTAGRAM
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He says he remembers the attack 'like it was yesterday'
Credit: SWNS
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Maslin received a 24-year life sentence for Hollie's murder
Credit: PA:Press Association
"He was manipulative, obsessive and had by then become totally fixated on her.'
'There's a knife'
On the day she died, Hollie had been expecting Maslin to turn up at the salon, according to her then-boss Sian Pryszlak.
She said: 'I'd agreed with Hollie earlier in the day that if he turned up, I wouldn't make a scene, I'd just call the police.'
Just after 6.30pm, on February 18, Maslin walked into the busy salon.
'I was doing a gentleman's hair,' said Sian.
She added: 'I said hello and he said hello and I walked to the back of the salon and held my phone up to Hollie to show that I was going to phone the police and we both nodded to one another.
'I remember feeling quite nervous and anxious about it.
"I heard quite a lot of commotion and then there were people running towards me and one client said, 'there's a knife'.'
The frenzied attack lasted just two minutes, but Nick says that his hurt will last for a lifetime.
His work can never ease the pain he feels daily when he recalls the day of Hollie's death.
He added: 'I remember the day we found out that Hollie had been attacked like it was yesterday. Every single detail stays fresh in my mind."
Nick had been invited for a meal at a friend's house along with Amanda and Chloe.
While out, he had to quickly nip back to the house to pick something up that he had forgotten.
He said: "When I got home, there was a car parked up and a policewoman stepped out and asked me if I was Hollie's father.
"She said she had something very serious to tell me and asked if we could go inside.
'I immediately began thinking through the worst things that could have happened to her. My heart was pumping.
"When we were inside the house, this policewoman broke it to me as gently as she could that Hollie had been stabbed multiple times and was in hospital."
Nick told how he raced back to the friends' house, picked Amanda up and drove to the hospital in a state of panic.
When they arrived, they were told by a consultant that Hollie was in surgery.
They were reassured that everything was being done in their power to try and save her life.
Nick added: "I wanted to go in and see her, but they said that was not possible because she was being operated on and every second was critical.
'I hoped with all my heart they'd find a way to save her, but half an hour later, the surgeon came out to us.
"He looked ashen, and he was shaking. He sat my wife and me down and told us he'd tried everything to save her, but she was dead.
"That moment changed our families' lives forever.'
Breaking the cycle
In his public talks, Nick urges parents who are concerned their daughter might be in an unhealthy relationship 'to try and sit them down and get them to open up'.
He added: 'Ask them if there's anything they'd like to talk about, and if they do open up, listen to them, take them seriously and help put them in touch with professionals who can give them clear, decisive advice.
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Nick was made an OBE for his work in tackling violence against women
Credit: PA
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Maslin pawned a DVD player for £5 to pay for the knife he used in the crazed attack
Credit: SWNS:South West News Service
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Hollie was stabbed to death in front of colleagues at her salon
Credit: Rex Features
'Through the trust I set up after Hollie died, I've lost count of the number of girls and parents we helped get out - and stay out - of destructive relationships.
'One of the most satisfying moments has been when the mother of a 19-year-old young woman contacted me to tell me that for years she had been unable to get her daughter out of an unhealthy, violent relationship.
'She told me her daughter would end the relationship, but then, within days or weeks, they'd get back together because he kept managing to convince her to try again.
'But after coming to one of my talks and reading through our advice online, she actually managed to help her daughter break the cycle and she finished with him… for good.
Nothing will ever bring her back, but at least now I can help others make sure they keep their daughters alive and away from men who will harm them
Nick Gazzard
'And now, she told me, her daughter has found a new boyfriend, someone who adores her and treats her with kindness and respect. She's finally in a healthy, happy relationship.
'That made my heart burst with pride. For me, that was the most satisfying moment since Hollie's death."
Nick is well aware that he can't change what happened, but he has found comfort in helping others escape their abusive partners.
He was made an OBE for his work by the Princess Royal at Buckingham Palace in March.
He said: 'I am so glad to have perhaps saved at least one young woman from ending up in the situation my beautiful daughter Hollie found herself.
"Nothing will ever bring her back, but at least now I can help others make sure they keep their daughters alive and away from men who will harm them."
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Nicola Sturgeon said her famed relationship with Alex Salmond began to deteriorate when she became first minister (Andrew Milligan/PA) The politicians began their inquiry after a judicial review in 2019 found the Scottish Government's investigation into Mr Salmond's alleged misconduct was unlawful, unfair and tainted by apparent bias. Mr Salmond, who died last year, was awarded £500,000 in legal expenses. Ms Sturgeon wrote of the inquiry: 'It also gave the significant number of people who tuned in to watch the chance to see for themselves just how partisan some of the committee members were being. 'Not surprisingly, the opposition majority on the committee managed to find some way of asserting in their report that I had breached the ministerial code. 'However, it was the verdict of the independent Hamilton report that mattered.' She said her infamous falling out with her predecessor was a 'bruising episode' of her life as she accused Mr Salmond of creating a 'conspiracy theory' to defend himself from reckoning with misconduct allegations, of which he was cleared in court. Ms Sturgeon said her former mentor was 'never able to produce a shred of hard evidence that he was' the victim of a conspiracy. Nicola Sturgeon accused Alex Salmond of creating a conspiracy to shield himself from his reckoning with his own behaviour (Robert Perry/PA) She went on: 'All of which begs the question: how did he manage to persuade some people that he was the wronged party, and lead others to at least entertain the possibility? 'In short, he used all of his considerable political and media skills to divert attention from what was, for him, the inconvenient fact of the whole business. 'He sought to establish his conspiracy narrative by weaving together a number of incidents and developments, all of which had rational explanations, into something that, with his powers of persuasion, he was able to cast as sinister.' Ms Sturgeon speaks about Mr Salmond several times in her autobiography, which also has a dedicated chapter to him, simply titled 'Alex Salmond'. In it, she speaks of an 'overwhelming sense of sadness and loss' when she found out about his death, which she said hit her harder than she had anticipated. Ms Sturgeon says the breakdown in their relationship happened long before Mr Salmond's misconduct allegations. She said it had begun to deteriorate when she became first minister in 2014 following his resignation in light of the independence referendum defeat. I know I will never quite escape the shadow he casts, even in death Nicola Sturgeon, speaking about Alex Salmond Ms Sturgeon claims her former boss still wanted to 'call the shots' outside of Bute House and appeared unhappy that she was no longer his inferior. She also accuses him of trying to 'distort' and 'weaponise' his alleged victims' 'trauma' through his allegations of conspiracy. Ms Sturgeon claims that Mr Salmond, who later quit the SNP to form the Alba Party, would rather have seen the SNP destroyed than be successful without him. Despite her myriad claims against her predecessor, though, Ms Sturgeon said: 'Part of me still misses him, or at least the man I thought he was and the relationship we once had. 'I know I will never quite escape the shadow he casts, even in death.'
