Fugitive convicted after international manhunt
The 31-year-old grew long hair and a beard and got the tattoo of his child’s name covered over as he used false identity documents.
One of Britain’s most wanted fugitives has been convicted of murder after a three-and-a-half-year international manhunt.
Shane O’Brien slashed 21-year-old Josh Hanson’s neck in an act of “pitiless savagery” at a west London bar before fleeing the country in a private plane in 2015.
Council worker Mr Hanson clutched his neck as his horrified girlfriend watched blood pour out of a 37cm (14.5ins) gaping wound from his left ear to right chest.
The 31-year-old grew long hair and a beard and got the tattoo of his child’s name covered over as he used false identity documents to travel to countries including Germany, Belgium and the Czech Republic.
Friends helped the boxing and martial arts fan avoid authorities after he was added to both Europol and Interpol’s most wanted lists, his trial heard.
O’Brien told jurors he had felt threatened by Mr Hanson’s “very aggressive body language”, saying he felt the roads planner was “ready to attack me” and may have been armed.
O’Brien claimed he wanted only to “pretend to attack” Mr Hanson with the blade to “scare him”, adding: “From the bottom of my heart, I did not mean to touch him with that blade.”
But jurors convicted him of murder after 55 minutes of deliberations.
O’Brien, who fled the country in a private plane shortly after the killing in October 2015, stared ahead and showed no emotion as the guilty verdict was returned.
He will be sentenced by judge Nigel Lickley QC on October 17.
After an international manhunt O’Brien was finally arrested in Romania on March 23 and brought back to Britain on April 5.
