At the family’s request, police have released the footage showing exactly what happened at the RE Bar in Eastcote which led to Josh Hanson being brutally murdered and the killer’s movements after the unprovoked attack.
CCTV footage from the club shows the killer, Shane O’Brien, who was found guilty of murder yesterday (October 1), slashed a Stanley knife across Josh Hanson’s ear, throat and chest, causing a 37cm gaping wound.
O’Brien paused for a moment, lowered his arm to conceal the weapon and then walked calmly to the exit.
Back in the bar, Josh’s friends tried to hold him as he collapsed on the floor.
Others rushed to help, including an off-duty nurse, and began CPR.
After the incident, O’Brien, who had strong links to Ruislip, fled to a caravan park in Camber Sands before leaving the country on a private jet and taking the police on an international cat and mouse chase which lasted for nearly four years.
The CCTV shows O’Brien visiting an Indian restaurant and several designer shops before leaving the country.
A manhunt was launched, and O’Brien was placed on Most Wanted lists across the world.
Rewards for information leading to his arrest and prosecution were raised over time to £50,000.
Detectives began to piece together his movements.
The private plane landed in the Netherlands where O’Brien was refused entry as he didn’t have a passport.
He took an onward journey to Germany where he walked across the airfield and vanished.
The man who chartered the plane and accompanied O’Brien out of the UK was later convicted of importing 100kg of heroin and cocaine, along with 30 of those encrypted phones.
The pilots were convicted in the Netherlands of importing more than 90kg of heroin.
DCI McHugh, said: “Early on it was clear O’Brien was a well-resourced and connected individual. With astonishing ease, he was able to arrange a trip out of London, a flight out of the UK. He had the means and connections to disappear, people who would support him with funds and by supplying fake documentation.
“We had nearly a hundred potential sightings and we followed up everyone – from Lidl in London to Luxemburg. At one point we believed he was in Dubai and did a lot of work with authorities there to try to track him. He also had links to Spain, France and Ireland.
“In February 2017 he messed up – getting arrested and bailed in Prague for a minor scuffle in a club. It meant we were able to obtain up-to-date images of him, which revealed he’d had a distinctive tattoo on his back of his children’s name covered up by an owl holding a skull, had a full beard and had grown his hair. He was also using Italian aliases.
In March this year, O’Brien’s brief, based in the UK, called police saying O’Brien was considering handing himself in and wanted them to travel to Budapest to personally meet him.
Then the location was changed to Romania last minute where police alerted Romanian authorities who detained him.
WARNING – THIS VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC CONTENT OF THE MOMENT O’BRIEN SLASHES JOSH HANSON.
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