In the early morning hours of April 4, 78-year-old Richard Osborn-Brooks awoke to noises in the home he shared with his wife who suffers from dementia. He found two burglars going through his possessions and confronted them. One of the burglars was armed with a screwdriver. In the struggle that followed, Osborn-Brooks ended up with he screwdriver and stabbed one of the men. They fled the house, but the stabbed man bled out internally and dropped dead on the street.
Henry Vincent, a father-of-four, had reportedly targeted a number of pensioners during his long criminal career.
The 37-year-old was said to be well known for carrying a screwdriver as a weapon.
He was revealed to have been once on a “most wanted” list and had previously been jailed for a total of 10 years.
Vincent had been part of a gang known to escort victims to banks to withdraw the cash to pay for the work.
In 2009, Vincent was jailed for six years after charging an OAP [old age pensioner] £72,000 to replace a single tile on his roof.
As it says, Henry didn’t work alone:
Seven relatives from Vincent’s large traveller family were jailed in October 2003 after conning pensioners out of £450,000.
In a sane country, a 78-year old man killing a burglar in his home mano-a-mano would be applauded. But this is not a sane country. Initially, Osborn=Brooks was arrested on suspicion of murder, though he has since been freed.
Now, the cretinous friends and relatives of the deceased thug have built a shrine to his nasty ass right outside the home where he was killed. They have threatened Osborn-Brooks seriously enough that he’s fled his home. And a low level war is underway between the people who live in the neighborhood, who are trying to dismantle the “shrine,” and the ongoing criminal enterprise that keeps rebuilding it. So what do the police do?
Police are threatening to arrest vigilantes if they continue to tear down tributes left by the family of a dead burglar, it has been revealed.
A ‘disgraceful’ memorial to Henry Vincent, who was killed by a pensioner he tried to rob, was torn down for a fourth time in three days and police faced increasing pressure to ‘bulldoze’ the shrine for good.
The ‘battle of the bouquets’ outside the home of Richard Osborn-Brooks is spiralling out of control after a turf war broke out between locals and the family of career criminal Vincent.
Now police officers are believed to be closely watching the memorial and have told neighbours to make no attempt to remove the flowers, threatening to arrest them for ‘breaching the peace’.
…
Chief Superintendent Simon Dobinson, Lewisham Borough commander, said: ‘I am aware of the concerns that have been raised by residents regarding the floral tributes placed in Hither Green.‘My officers have a responsibility to provide reassurance to local residents so they can go about their daily lives, while also respecting the wishes of family and friends to mark the loss of a loved one.
‘They are not there to safeguard or facilitate the laying of floral tributes; we are liaising with the local authority who are considering appropriate management of the floral tributes.
‘I do not want anyone to feel intimidated or that they are not being allowed to respond in a dignified way to a tragic death.
‘We would urge members of the public to respect the wishes of those who choose to place flowers and other tributes in the area.
‘We would also request those placing tributes or visiting the area to behave in a responsible manner so as not to disrupt the local community.
‘There have been no arrests. Officers will assess any potential criminal offences including any allegations that are made to police, which will be dealt with in a fair and appropriate manner on an individual basis.’
Henry Vincent’s family had returned to put up the flowers on the south-east London street this morning after it was ripped down for a third time last night – and may now return to restore it for a fourth time.
If this bunch of vicious grifters wants to build a monument to a guy who got his ass kicked by a 78-year-old man, have at it. It’s not the usual thing that a criminal enterprise that hopes for fear and respect would celebrate but this is Britain of the 21st century so new norms apply. But they should have the common decency to do it on their own property or in their own neighborhood. The gutless actions of the police force, however, is unconscionable. The criminal gang is affixing their semi-literate messages and balloons and flowers (probably stolen) to the fences of other homeowners and are daring the homeowners to take them down and the police are openly siding with the criminals.
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