A career criminal already serving a life sentence has been handed an additional three years in prison for attempting to break into the London bedroom of Hollywood star Anya Taylor-Joy. Kirk Holdrick, 43, and an accomplice smashed their way into the luxury property in February 2023, prompting the actress's husband, musician Malcolm McRae, to barricade himself and his wife inside their bedroom.
Wood Green Crown Court heard that McRae, armed only with a lamp, shouted 'I have a gun' to scare off the intruders, who were trying to prise open the bedroom door with a crowbar. The pair fled empty-handed. Holdrick's DNA was found at the scene, and he was arrested in April 2023 after arriving in Liverpool from Belfast.
Just nine days after the failed raid, Holdrick struck again in Sandbanks, Dorset. Disguised as a police officer and accompanied by Ashley Fulton, he targeted the home of businessman Mark Aitchison. The intruders held Aitchison's wife and daughter at gunpoint, tied them up, and threatened to burn them with an iron and shoot them if they did not open the family safe. They fled with approximately £200,000 worth of goods, including luxury watches and jewellery.
Holdrick, who also used the alias Aaron Evans, initially denied involvement in the Taylor-Joy burglary, claiming his DNA was from a previous party visit. He later pleaded guilty. The Crown Prosecution Service argued the raid may have been targeted, given the direct approach to the bedroom. Holdrick received a 12-year sentence for the Sandbanks invasion last November, with the latest three-year term to run consecutively.
