BATTLE OF THE SHRINE OVER DEAD BURGLAR
Family tributes torn down then put back up
MOUNTED police patrolled in hero pensioner Richard Osborn-Brooks’s neighbourhood yesterday as tensions rose over a shrine to the burglar he stabbed to death.
They joined patrol cars after residents clashed with the grieving family of serial villain Henry Vincent.
Neighbours of Mr Osborn-Brooks repeatedly tore down flowers, messages and balloons posted on a garden fence opposite his burgled house.
One 29-year-old man who cut down the memorials said: “If those scum came at me I’d get a screwdriver and do what Richard did.”
But the Vincent traveller clan hit back, branding the 78-year-old householder a “lowlife” and demanding he apologise for killing the armed intruder.
The flare-up came as Mr OsbornBrooks and his wife Maureen remained at a police safe house after last week’s drama at his south-east London home.
Vincent’s aunt attacked the retired RAC office manager, saying: “He’s got no remorse. Have you ever heard that man say, ‘I’m sorry for his kids’?”
The aunt, who declined to give her name, defended her nephew and his accomplice who broke into Mr OsbornBrooks’s home, saying: “They shouldn’t have been there, fair enough, but somebody has actually died here and they have left a family of three little daughters.
“There’s burglaries every five minutes and I don’t see anybody else getting condemned. Why rip all his flowers down? Why do that?”
Another family member said: “He did not hurt the old man and he did not hurt the old woman, and they never had intentions to do that.
“Yes, they’ve gone there to get a bit of money and they had no rights to be in the old man’s place. I will say that the old man did have rights to stick up for himself but he has killed him. So why are people going and taking all his flowers and chucking them away?”
The memorial sprang up on Monday near the spot where Vincent bled to death in Hither Green, after fleeing from Mr Osborn-Brooks’s home.
Mr Osborn-Brooks was at home with his wife in the early hours of last Wednesday when he was confronted by Vincent and an accomplice, who police believe is Billy Jeeves, 28, from Kent.
Vincent threatened the homeowner with a screwdriver but was stabbed as his victim fought back.
After Vincent died, Mr Osborn-Brooks was arrested on suspicion of murder but released with no further action taken, after an outcry from senior politicians and members of the public.
Jeeves’s white Vauxhall Astra van was found burnt out on Saturday evening.
About 20 bouquets appeared on a fence in the road in Hither Green on Monday evening but they and other items were ripped down overnight, with one furious vigilante even posting an online video of himself dismantling it.
Vincent family members returned yesterday to reassemble the shrine – only for it to be ripped down again within an hour.
Local resident Nikita Hill, 39, said: “They should not have put it right in front of the house. It is going to touch people’s nerves.” Another local resident, who gave his name only as Peter, said: “It is not very nice for the pensioner involved. You would not like it in your face.”
The dispute came as the burglar’s body was cleared for burial at an inquest into his death.
Sarah Ormond-Walshe, assistant coroner for Inner London South, told two female relatives: “I know you are having a dreadful time – I am releasing the body now.”