FINALLY BANGED UP
Britain’s most wanted man jailed for life after slashing drinker’s neck and going on run for 3 years
ONE of Britain's most wanted fugitives has been jailed for life today for the "grotesque" murder of Josh Hanson following a three-and-a-half year international manhunt.
Shane O'Brien, 31, slashed the neck of Mr Hanson, 21, in an act of "pitiless savagery" at a west London bar before fleeing the UK in a private plane.
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Mr Hanson, a council worker, was with his girlfriend when he was attacked at the RE bar in Hillingdon.
Dad-of-two O'Brien fled abroad on a private jet to the Netherlands chartered by a drug dealer shortly after he attacked the 21-year-old.
He used false travel documents to evade police until he was finally arrested in Romania and brought back to Britain on April after three-and-a-half years on the run.
During his Old Bailey trial, jurors were shown CCTV footage of the attack on Mr Hanson in the early hours of October 11 2015.
Mr Hanson could be seen clutching his throat and stumbling as his horrified girlfriend watched blood pour out of a 37cm gaping wound from his left ear to right chest.
After fleeing the UK, O'Brien grew long hair and a beard and got a tattoo of his daughter'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 lay low after he was added to both Europol and Interpol's most wanted lists, his trial heard.
Despite being arrested in Prague in 2017 for assault, he managed to slip through the net after using the alias Enzo Melloncelli and fleeing when released on bail.
O'Brien denied murder, claiming he felt threatened by Mr Hanson's "very aggressive body language".
He told jurors he only wanted scare Mr Hanson and did not mean the blade to touch him.
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O'Brien was found guilty of murder on October 1 after a jury deliberated for 55 minutes.
Sentencing him today, Judge Nigel Lickley said: "You approached Josh Hanson who was standing with his girlfriend and you slashed him using a razor sharp Stanley knife from his left ear across his neck causing a wound 37cm long that gaped to about 85cm wide.
"You walked away and left Josh Hanson to die in front of his shocked and traumatised friends.
"Josh Hanson did not know you, he had done nothing to provoke any reaction from you let alone violence of this sort.
"This was a grotesque, violent and totally unnecessary attack on an innocent man.
"You evaded the criminal justice system and prolonged the family's suffering.You remained at large and an international police manhunt was launched to try and find you."
Detective Chief Inspector Noel McHugh, from Scotland Yard, described the hunt for O'Brien as "hugely challenging".
He said: "He was funded, provided with false documents, encrypted mobile phones, well beyond the capability of the ordinary criminal."
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Britain’s most wanted fugitive Shane O’Brien arrested in Romania over 2015 murder of man at London bar