The pensioner who fatally stabbed a serial burglar in his home spoke for the first time yesterday about his desperate struggle to protect his frail wife.
Richard Osborn-Brooks, now living in a secret location, said he felt ‘helpless and terrified’ when two men in balaclavas raided his house at night.
The 79-year-old said he grabbed a 12-inch kitchen knife and threatened career criminal Henry Vincent, who was armed with a screwdriver.
Richard Osborn-Brooks, now living in a secret location, said he felt ‘helpless and terrified’ when two men in balaclavas raided his house at night.
Vincent, who had recently taken cocaine and heroin, shouted: ‘Come near me and I’ll stick you.’
Pensioner Mr Osborn-Brooks, who has a heart condition, replied ‘mine is bigger than yours’ before stabbing the burglar in the chest in the hallway of his £500,000 home in Hither Green, south-east London.
Vincent, 37, staggered out of the house and died in hospital three hours later.
Mr Osborn-Brooks spoke for the first time about the events that night when he gave evidence via videolink at the inquest into Vincent’s death in Southwark Coroner’s Court yesterday, where coroner Andrew Harris ruled that the career criminal had been lawfully killed.
The 79-year-old said he grabbed a 12-inch kitchen knife and threatened career criminal Henry Vincent (pictured), who was armed with a screwdriver
Mr Osborn-Brooks’s face was obscured so no one – not even Mr Harris – could see him.
Recalling his emotions that night, he said: ‘I wanted him out the house and away from my wife. It is not an experience I had ever had before and never wish to have again.
‘I have never been in a circumstance like that before. I felt terrified, helpless. I just wanted to threaten him and make him go away.’
Asked what he felt terrified about, he said: ‘Mainly that they would hurt my wife. That if they still continue to think that we had money in the house, that they might do something to her to make me give it up. But we didn’t have any money in the house to give up.’
Mr Osborn-Brooks, a retired RAC manager, was arrested on suspicion of murder, only to be released without charge within days. He subsequently faced death threats from Vincent’s associates in the travelling community and was warned by police he could not return to the house he and his wife Maureen, 77, had lived in for almost 42 years.
Rose Lee (left), mother of Henry Vincent, is guided out of Southwark Coroner's Court after the inquest into his death
The pensioner was upstairs with his wife when they were disturbed by a knock on the front door shortly after midnight on April 4 last year.
When Mr Osborn-Brooks answered the door he was forced backwards by Vincent and accomplice Billy Jeeves, who were wearing black hoodies and grey balaclavas.
The pensioner was grabbed by
