Police mechanic Alan Holmes died after being tied to his bed

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BOXING Day was the 29th anniversary of the night Alan Holmes met his killer – or killers.

The next time the calendar ticks around to December 26 it will be 30 years.

As cold cases go, this terrible unsolved murder is getting chillier as each yuletide passes.

But the New Journal made a pledge all those years ago, when the terrible circumstances of the 53-year-old police mechanic’s death were first fully revealed a few days into 1996.

It was a simple promise that we would keep appealing for information to find those responsible long after the TV cameras had gone away. So, today, we ask again: Who killed Alan Holmes?

Cast your minds back – because only a new lead or fresh clue will get detectives dusting down the files. Mr Holmes had been the victim of a break-in at his flat in Parkway, Camden Town, on Boxing Day 1995.

The intruder, or possibly intruders, tightly tied him to his bed, face down.

They demanded the codes to his bank card and escaped with around £1,000 but the killer did not come back to release Mr Holmes.

Instead, he lay there for nine days bound to his bed. It was only when he did not return to work at Kentish Town Police Station in Holmes Road that officers broke his door down.

We know what happened to him because he was still alive when they found him and he was able to give an account of his horrific ordeal. But the damage was done. The uncomprom­ising restraints had meant he had been hardly able to move.

A fatal blood clot had developed.

Alan Holmes worked at Kentish Town Police Station

He was also suffering from dehydration and he died at University College London Hospital on January 5, 1996.

Mr Holmes had been strapped to his bed, dying, while Christmas and New Year’s celebrations were progressing in the streets all around. Nobody could hear his cries because he was the last tenant of a block which has since been demolished. It was where GAP used to have a shop and Sainsbury’s are now creating a new store.

As you walk up those first steps of Parkway, you have no idea of the tragedy which unfolded nearly three decades ago. If you could get in a time machine, however, you would see packs of reporters firing questions at detectives and solemn vows coming back that there would be no hiding place for a killer of “one of their own”.

A plaque still hangs in the police station honouring his name, but not all new recruits know the full story of how he died. Police arrested five people but never charged anybody with murder.

The best description of two suspects said they were two men in their 20s. The passing of time means they would now be in their 50s or 60s and probably out there somewhere feeling like they have got away with murder. Detectives have often said that changing loyalties or a pricked conscience may be crucial to getting long overdue justice for Mr Holmes.

Somebody out there knows the truth and could still come forward and provide the missing pieces of the jigsaw.

This is why the New Journal publishes an appeal every Christmas – even if Scotland Yard’s own communications team are unable to. The last big push by detectives was a renewed appeal back in 2010.

John Oldham, who was at that time a detective chief superintendent with the Met, said: “Those responsible have never been held to account.We hope that another year on, our re-appeals reach someone who may have information that will help the enquiry. “I hope they now feel that they can come forward and speak to police.”

Maybe one day some­body will do the right thing as he suggested. Mr Holmes deserves that.