Terrified neighbours of Richard Osborn-Brooks reveal how they sleep next to ... trends now
The neighbours of Richard Osborn-Brooks have revealed they sleep next to weapons to protect themselves six years after he was forced to flee his family home after killing a traveller burglar.
Locals in Hither Green, south-east London, said the pensioner 'vanished' without a trace after he was forced into hiding when Henry Vincent's family made threats of revenge.
Mr Osborn-Brooks, who was 79 at the time, stabbed career criminal Vincent, 37, with a 12-inch kitchen knife after being terrified when two masked men raided his home at night in April 2018.
He was initially arrested by police on suspicion of murder but was eventually released following a national public outcry after the case became a renowned example of a citizen using self-defence.
Mr Osborn-Brooks and his wife Maureen were then forced to flee their suburban home of 42 years immediately after the attempted raid.
Richard Osborn-Brooks, 79, (pictured) has remained in hiding after he knifed career criminal Henry Vincent, 32, after he caught him breaking into his home on April 4 2018
Vincent, who was high on cocaine and heroin at the time of the attack and armed with a screwdriver, came from a large travelling community that police feared could seek revenge on the elderly couple
The south-east London home owned by Mr Osborn-Brooks and his wife Maureen for 42 years, is now owned by a new family who were unaware of the high-profile case centred at the address
Vincent, who was high on cocaine and heroin at the time of the attack and armed with a screwdriver, came from a large travelling community that police feared could seek retribution on the elderly couple.
It comes after a farmer was arrested on suspicion of shooting a 'burglar' who had allegedly raided his home in Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire, earlier this week.
Rob Lomas, 50, was held after Marcus Smith, 19, was discovered dead at the scene in Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire, on Wednesday morning.
The alleged home invasion has chilling echoes of the Mr Osborn-Brooks case and that of farmer Tony Martin who shot 16-year-old traveller burglar Fred Barras to death on his farm in Norfolk in 1999.
Now Mr Osborn-Brooks's neighbours have spoken out six years after he and his elderly wife, who was suffering from dementia, were forced to leave without packing their things and go into hiding.
Danny Genus, 72, has lived on the same road as Mr Osborn-Brooks for 34 years and said he knew him as a neighbour for years.
But he said immediately after the robbery, his friendly neighbour disappeared.
'We never even got the chance to speak to them or say goodbye' he said.
'They were just gone. We have never seen them again. And no one has heard from them since.'
The postman backed Mr Osborn-Brooks defending himself, commenting 'he was an army man and was tough' and despite being old 'knew how to handle himself'.
Another neighbour George Reynolds, 85, said the robbery made him more aware of burglars, telling MailOnline he was also prepared to use force to defend his home.
The 1920s terraced house in Hither Green was shuttered up following the raid in 2018
Vincent, 37, collapsed in the street and later died in University Hospital Lewisham
After the robbery, Mr Osborn-Brooks was described as a 'traditional Englishman' who was popular among neighbours after contributing towards a scheme to reduce burglary in the area
The retired carpenter said: 'I go to bed every night with a heavy walking stick by the side of my bed. Most blokes I know have got sticks, they even carry them in the motor.
'If someone came up my stairs the first thing I would do would be whack them.
'They tried to get him with a screwdriver and he turned the tables on them. I now have cameras at the front and at the back, my neighbour has even had people in her garden before.'
The keen gardener also said he did not agree with the way the traveller community acted after Vincent's death.
He said: 'All the travellers were calling him a hero.s
'We got a lot of travellers coming down to the road – mostly women. They were lining up and down the street. It was a bit tense.'
After the robbery, Mr Osborn-Brooks was described as a 'traditional Englishman' who was popular among neighbours after contributing towards a scheme to reduce burglary in the area.
Someone who worked with him in the 1970s at the offices of the RAC in Croydon, said he was an office manager in the membership department but had been 'more of a friend than a boss' - calling him 'gentle and very intelligent'.
But the pensioner was forced to never return to his home in Hither Green and eventually sold the £500,000 1920s terrace, which had been shuttered up following the raid, for £100,000 under its market value in 2019.
The property is now the home to a new family who were unaware entirely of the infamous case when asked about it by MailOnline.
Another neighbour on the road, Jeffery Tunde, 35, said after the robbery the whole community supported Mr Osborn-Brooks.
Vincent's family repeatedly left floral tributes to the dead burglar outside Mr Osborn-Brooks' home in 2018
Six years after the incident the fence where the flowers were displayed has now broken
The quiet residential street (pictured this week) was once the scene of one of the most high-profile cases of self-defence in the UK
The intruder was found collapsed in a neighbouring street after fleeing the couple's home
In the weeks following the robbery, removal men were sent to the address to pack the couple's things as they could not return due to threats from the traveller's family
Removal men collect items from the home of pensioner Mr Osborn-Brooks in Hither Green
Mr Osborn-Brooks, pictured at a clay pigeon shoot in 2010, lived at the house with his wife Maureen, who is understood to have had dementia
He said: 'You have a right to defend your home. His life is the most precious thing. I feel like there is allowances in the law for people who go too far. Everybody would do the same.
'His family came down afterwards – the cheek of it. The neighbourhood was quite united against them and supported him.'
Although he didn't see much on the night of the robbery, Mr Tunde said the community became much more security conscious afterwards.
He said: 'Hardly anything happens around here, but after that people put in much more security. All the alleyways got locked up. A lot has changed.'
Neighbour Bianca Enache, 30, said she remembered how busy the quiet residential street became after the incident.
'I woke up in the morning after he stabbed him and there were police everywhere. The street was closed', she said.
Although she didn't know Mr Osborn-Brooks too well, Ms Enache said he was a 'really nice man' and they would regularly say 'hi and bye' to each other.
She said since the robbery gone wrong she worries about crime in the neighbourhood and what she would do if her home was invaded.
'If it is self-defence, you do what you gotta do. If you can try not to kill the person that is good, but you have to defend yourself' she said.
One neighbour who did not wish to be named said they remembered the case well and recalled how two weeks before the robbery she got a knock at the door from a young traveller boy, who was accompanied by some men.
The middle-aged women said: 'They were asking people if they wanted their drives done. I think they wanted to check who was in and who was of the elderly generation. I think they were canvassing the area.
'I asked the boy 'shouldn't you be in school?' but they ignored me.'
She supported Mr Osborn-Brooks' actions on the night of the robbery, adding: 'He is defending his home and defending his wife, so I don't think he should have been sent to jail.
'If someone comes into your house you should be able to use reasonable force. It is a clear case of them or you.
'It is sad because I don't think they ever came back to that house.'
Following the death, she said the travellers put out flowers for Vincent but that the neighbourhood disapproved of them. Some neighbours, who she did not name, got rid of them by kicking them over – calling them disrespectful as Vincent had done something illegal.
A lot of the neighbours disapproved of the floral tributes at the time
Friends and relatives of Vincent arrive at the scene on South Park Crescent in Hither Green a week after the botched burglary
A number of residents took actions into their own hands and decided to tear down the flowers
She said the family mourning outside Mr Osborn-Brooks' house would 'clearly scare anyone'.
'They were sitting down on the kerb on the road outside the house crying and shouting.'
At Vincent's funeral the family wanted to drive the hearse through the street he died on, but a lot of the residents were against the plan.
'We got a leaflet through the door telling us about it beforehand. On the day of the funeral there was a huge police presence.
'It wasn't a very nice time.'
Mr Osborn-Brooks has not been seen by any of the residents on road since after he and his wife were given new identities and moved to a mystery location.
At the inquest into Vincent's death in 2019 the coroner ruled he was lawfully killed with 'proportionate force' after Mr Osborn-Brooks 'acted in self-defence'.
But the pensioner had to hide his face when he evidence via videolink and it is thought he could now look totally different.
Married couple Peter, 51, and
