Battle over the shrine to stabbed career criminal
THREE times family of burglar place flowers. THREE times they are pulled down
THE sickening shrine to the career criminal killed by a pensioner during a botched burglary became an extraordinary battleground yesterday.
Friends and relatives of Henry Vincent, 37, repeatedly erected a tribute to the serial burglar opposite the pensioner’s home – only for the flowers to be repeatedly torn down.
Vincent’s relatives, who are from the travelling community, branded Richard Osborn-Brooks, 78, a ‘murderer’ and even demanded he apologise.
But Mr Osborn-Brooks’s neighbours in Hither Green, south-east London, said the shrine was designed to antagonise them. The pensioner is in hiding after receiving death threats.
Over the course of an extraordinary 36 hours, the memorial to the burglar was erected, torn down, erected again, torn down again and re-erected for a third time – then pulled down yet again after nightfall.
During the day, several police officers stood by as the confrontation played out, apparently unwilling or unable to intervene.
Vincent, armed with a screwdriver, was stabbed during a confrontation with Mr Osborn-Brooks as he tried to burgle his home last week while the pensioner’s wife, who has dementia, was in the property.
Mr Osborn-Brooks was arrested on suspicion of murder – sparking a political outcry – but only two days later he was told he would face no further action.
That, in turn, sparked anger from Vincent’s relatives.
The confrontation over the shrine began when Vincent’s friends and family attached more than 20 bunches of flowers, balloons and soft toys to a fence yards from Mr Osborn-Brooks’s home on Monday night.
That was then torn down in the early hours of yesterday when a vigilante drove across London angered by the scenes.
Tensions escalated when three of Vincent’s relatives – who said they were from a travelling community – returned to reattach the flowers to a garden fence.
But minutes after they left, a local man in a hat walked up to the shrine with a pair of scissors and cut down the bouquets for a second time. ‘These flowers need burning,’ he said. ‘It’s an insult.’
In increasingly fraught scenes, Vincent’s family returned once again in the evening and recreated the shrine to the dead burglar.
Later they were spotted in a car on the street, appearing to ‘guard’ the shrine. Last night a hooded vigilante, believed to be the same man from Monday, returned just after 9.30pm and for a third time pulled down the shrine.
Earlier four police officers stood outside Mr Osborn-Brooks’s home as the stand-off continued.
One neighbour suggested the tribute was placed opposite the Osborn-Brooks’ home to ‘antagonise’ them. She said: ‘He [Vincent] died in hospital. They should not have a tribute to him here.’
The tributes had been attached to a fence surrounding a property owned by 78-year-old Saverimuthu Augustine.
Mr Augustine said: ‘When I heard they were on my fence, I was annoyed. If it was a normal person that is different but he went and burgled the house.’
At one stage, nine officers patrolled the street, including three on horseback. Scotland Yard said its officers were unable to intervene in the tawdry saga because such behaviour did not constitute criminal activity.
The force said it would need to receive a complaint from the owner of the fence to take action.
Vincent was fatally stabbed after forcing Mr Osborn-Brooks downstairs as his partner ransacked a bedroom. The elderly couple are said to be living in hiding in a safe house amid fears of reprisals.
Relatives of Vincent inflamed the ill-feeling in Hither Green yesterday by demanding that Mr Osborn-Brooks apologise.
They repeatedly branded the pensioner a ‘murderer’ – even though police have told him he will not face charges.
Vincent’s aunt called for the elderly householder to apologise to the burglar’s children. His cousin, Elvina Lee, defiantly described the people who removed the tributes as ‘scum’. Looking over at the Osborn-Brooks’s home, she said: ‘The murderer’s over there. How do you think the family feels?
She blamed the family’s treatment on them being ‘gipsies’.
Asked what she would do if the flowers were pulled down for a third time – which they were hours later – she replied: ‘We will put up fresh ones.’
The shrine to Vincent was first pulled down by a vigilante at 10pm on Monday. The 29-year-old said he was enraged that the family had laid tributes for ‘that animal scum’. He added: ‘Flowers shouldn’t be there. Richard did the right thing.’
The hooded man who removed the flowers last night denied being the vigilante in the video but added: ‘I feel strongly about this.’
Police are still hunting for Vincent’s alleged accomplice Billy Jeeves, 28. Scotland Yard said officers are ‘closely monitoring’ tensions around the property.’
‘These flowers need burning’