Serial crook with a vile history of robbing and ripping off the elderly — the burglar killed by OAP
Minister says homeowners right to take on intruders
THE armed burglar who died after struggling with a pensioner during a break-in was a career criminal who helped con frail elderly householders out of almost £500,000.
As the backlash over the treatment of the pensioner intensified yesterday, it emerged that Henry Vincent, 37, had been on a police force’s ‘most wanted’ list, had a string of convictions and was suspected of burglaries targeting the vulnerable.
Vincent died after an attempted break-in at the home of Richard Osborn-Brooks, 78, just after midnight on Wednesday. He was fatally wounded during a struggle with Mr Osborn-Brooks at the £500,000 suburban property in Hither Green, South East London. Mr Osborn-Brooks, a retired RAC office manager, had been asleep beside his disabled wife Maureen, 76, when two men broke into their home just after midnight on Wednesday and threatened the terrified couple with a screwdriver.
Vincent was stabbed in the chest after marching Mr Osborn-Brooks into the kitchen, while an accomplice went upstairs to ransack the property, where his wife Maureen, 76, who has dementia, lay defenceless and terrified.
After Vincent died, Mr OsbornBrooks was arrested on suspicion of murder and only released on bail yesterday following 24 hours in custody. He remains under investigation.
Scotland Yard faced a backlash from MPs and members of the public who accused the force of being ‘consumed by political correctness’ and launching an ‘immoral’ witchhunt of a hero, who many said should get a medal for defending his wife and home.
Justice Secretary David Gauke said the Government’s ‘sympathies’ were with homeowners.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: ‘ While we cannot comment on specific cases, our sympathies are with householders who have to defend themselves when intruders break in. That’s why we strengthened the law in 2013 to give householders greater protection from intruders.
‘Those changes make it clear that if a householder believes their life or the lives of their family are in danger, and they act in self-defence, they would not ordinarily be convicted of an offence.’
Yesterday it emerged that Vincent was a predatory conman, burglar, drug addict and fraudster who had spent the past 15 years preying on the
‘He should be given a medal’
vulnerable. At the time of the breakin, Vincent was one of Kent Police’s most wanted criminals who was on the run after a distraction burglary last November which targeted a man in his 70s in Farningham, Kent.
The career criminal hails from a family of cowboy builders who were jailed for a total of 30 years for fleecing elderly householders out of more than £ 1million in 2003, police believe. Together with his father, Henry Charles Vincent, and five uncles, the younger Vincent tricked pensioners into handing over cash for fake building works after telling them their houses were about to fall down.
After Vincent was released from a four-year jail term for that scam, he and his father conned an 81-year-old pensioner out of £72,000 to repair a single tile on his roof in 2009.
In 2013, Vincent was put on Kent Police’s ‘most wanted’ list following another raid in Gravesend.
In stark contrast, the homeowner he targeted was described yesterday as a gentle, intelligent man who had never been in trouble.
A former Tory defence minister last night called Mr Osborn-Brooks’ treatment at the hands of police ‘absurd’.
Sir Gerald Howarth said: ‘There’s clear law on this. If an intruder armed with a
weapon suffers fatal injuries, that’s his fault. There should be no mercy for people like that.
‘It’s not only absurd, it’s wholly immoral that a householder seeming to protect himself and his family and his property should be the subject of a police investigation – and he should not have been held in custody. The police force is in crisis. It is completely consumed by political correctness.’ MP Tim Loughton, a member of the home affairs committee, said: ‘Every constituent who has contacted me about it said (Mr OsbornBrooks) should be treated as a hero rather than being in the frame for a crime.
‘You are talking about a vulnerable 78-year- old pensioner with a disabled wife in a house interrupted by two burglars. Why on earth is he being investigated for murder?’
David Green, of justice thinktank Civitas, said Mr OsbornBrooks should be ‘given a medal’, adding: ‘There isn’t any legal doubt whatsoever – you are entitled to use force, even unreasonable force in the heat of the moment, to defend yourself. This man should never have been arrested. Any selfrespecting man would have done the same thing.’
Former Cabinet minister Priti Patel also called for a change in the law to give greater protection to householders who defend themselves against intruders.
The law was tightened in 2013 to make it clear that householders should face prosecution only if they used ‘ grossly disproportionate’ force in defending themselves against an intruder.
Miss Patel said: ‘I thought we had sorted out this problem, but it is clear we are going to have to look at the law again because what we have seen in this case is a complete breakdown of the system.
Mr Osborn-Brooks’ wife’s close friend Dorothy Kirby, 87, said would he have done anything to protecting his frail wife – who is known as Mo. She added: ‘He is a decent man. You would pick up anything you would need to defend yourself and your home. He would be more worried about Mo. He really is a good man. The charges should be completely dropped.’
Neighbour Val Barclay, 63, said: ‘He deserves a medal. This is a pensioner who has worked all his life and wants to live and die quietly.’
Tributes have been paid to Vincent, said to be a father of three girls, on social media. His uncle Stevie, who lives in Orpington, said: ‘We’re in mourning here. We don’t want to talk about what’s been said about Henry. We’ve already had the Old Bill round here.’
Police are still searching for the man who fled the scene.