Ex-GP Brian Holder has been sentenced to 15 years jail for attempted murder of pharmacist

A Reynella doctor who meticulously prepared to try to murder a pharmacist first dressed in a suit and then offered her flowers before trying to stab her to death with a filleting knife. He’ll spend at least 10 years behind bars.

A doctor who attempted to kill a Port Lincoln pharmacist by ambushing her with a knife and flowers after she caught him overprescribing drugs to patients will serve at least 10 years behind bars.

Supreme Court Justice Ann Vanstone has sentenced Dr Brian Holder to 15 years jail with a non-parole period of 10 years after she found him guilty of attempted murder this week.

Holder, 69, attempted to kill the pharmacist at the Terry White Pharmacy in Port Lincoln on October 20 last year.

During sentencing, Justice Vanstone said how someone with Holder’s education, background and record of community service could plan and execute this attack was “extraordinary”.

The attack was sparked because the pharmacist reported Holder to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) because he was overprescribing drugs to Aboriginal women.

“You were issuing prescriptions to those women for high quantities of benzodiazepines and Panadeine Forte,” Justice Vanstone said.

“Your own practice as a general practitioner was in Reynella.

“The AHPRA investigation revealed that there was a significant pattern of such prescribing, not only to these women, but to the patients of your own practice.”

After the investigation, AHPRA placed strict conditions on his registrations and he was banned from prescribing certain medications.

Justice Vanstone said “most regrettably”, AHPRA encouraged the pharmacist to allow her name to be disclosed as the notifier and it was provided to Holder.

He then hired a private investigator to find her home address.

Holder bought a filleting knife in Adelaide, told his wife he was going to the Barossa Valley, spent one night there before driving to Port Lincoln.

Justice Vanstone said Holder “performed reconnaissance” on the home and workplace of the pharmacist in the days after arriving.

She said the general practitioner purchased a bouquet of flowers before going to the Post Office to send a package to his wife with a suicide note.

“During that afternoon, you went to the reception area of the Port Lincoln Hotel and sought assistance to open the packaging containing the knife,” she said.

“When the receptionist looked somewhat uncomfortable, you said to her, ‘It’s not like I am going to stab anyone with it’.”

Holder then changed into a suit and then went to the pharmacy and when the pharmacist approached him, he held out the flowers in one hand, and grabbed the knife in his right before slashing her.

“There were several striking motions,” Justice Vanstone said.

“She was younger and stronger than you and she was able to force you into a display stand where you stumbled.
Holden then abandoned the attack.

Justice Vanstone rejected Holder’s version of events – that he took the knife in case there was a “kerfuffle”.

“On the face of it, there appears to be a moral dimension missing,” she said.

“Your own evidence that you had always felt unconnected with the world provides some sort of insight as to that.”

Dr Craig Raeside diagnosed Holder as having a schizoid personality disorder or autism spectrum disorder.

“Whatever the reason for your crime, I have reached the conclusion that you are and will remain a dangerous man,” Justice Vanstone said.

“The sentence I impose must take account of general deterrence.

“Hopefully, persons who are minded to undertake revenge attacks of this nature might think twice about doing so.”

Holder will be eligible for parole in 2027.