A suspected killer and one of Britain’s most wanted fugitives has been placed on a worldwide most wanted list after more than two years on the run.
Shane O’Brien, 30, is alleged to have killed 21-year-old Josh Hanson in an unprovoked knife attack in a bar in Hillingdon, west London, in 2015.
He has now been placed on Interpol’s worldwide most wanted list and there is a £50,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and prosecution.
O’Brien left the UK on a privately chartered flight from Biggin Hill airport in the wake of the death of Hanson at the RE bar in Eastcote.
Hanson was stabbed in the neck in the early hours of 11 October 2015 and died from his injuries at the scene.
O’Brien, originally from Ladbroke Grove, is described as white, 6ft, with grey eyes, dark brown hair, a full beard and a tattoo on his back of an owl holding a skull, covering up a previous one of “Shannon 15-04-06”.
Since fleeing the UK, he is thought to have lived in the Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates before returning to Europe.
It emerged that he was arrested in Prague in early 2017 on suspicion of criminal damage and assault before he was released on bail.
He had dramatically changed his appearance and gave his name as Enzo Mellonceli, one of the Italian aliases he has been using.
Police say he has been travelling “extensively” and there were reported sightings in Gibraltar, Nice in France and Prague following an appeal for information in October last year.
He is also on the National Crime Agency’s most wanted list.
“Based on what we know about O’Brien’s lifestyle and interests, we are looking to people in nightclubs and boxing gyms as well as expats and any women he may have become involved with to come forward,” said Det Ch Insp Noel McHugh.
“Please do not assume that someone else will call in, what you perceive to be a small piece of information could in fact be the missing piece of the jigsaw that gets justice for Josh.”
He added that Hanson’s family “need to see O’Brien brought to justice” since, “the lack of justice only adds to their heartbreak”.
“Our lives will never be the same without Josh and I would not wish our living nightmare on anyone. It is a pain that no words alone can describe,” said Hanson’s mother Tracey and his sister Brooke.
“Someone somewhere also knows where O’Brien is and can change the pain and uncertainty that each day brings for us.
“We ask you to try to imagine the emptiness that we have been left to live with.Please, please, please do the right thing and make that call or encourage someone else to.”