Earlier this month, 78-year-old homeowner, Richard Osborn-Brooks was awakened by intruders, Henry Vincent and Billy Jeeves. Vincent was armed with a screw driver which Osborn-Brooks managed to wrestle away and he stabbed Vincent with his own weapon. Vincent and Jeeves ran off, but Vincent stumbled and fell where the police found him when they arrived. The cops promptly arrested Osborn-Brooks on suspicion of grievous bodily harm, but those charges turned to murder when Vincent died.
Osborn-Brooks’ neighbors rallied in their support for the retiree, according to the Daily Mail;
‘He’s a nice man, nice to talk to. He’s an old man – it’s a shame really. I hope the law sees sense and let’s him off. I don’t think it’s right.
‘I don’t know his name. I just hope he gets off.
‘One of the police told me it’s definitely him that’s been arrested.’
Adam Lake, who lives near the scene, was also keen to defend his neighbour.
He said: ‘He doesn’t deserve to be punished for defending himself, and the neighbours that I’ve spoken to all agree that the priority needs to be to support him after everything that he’s been through.
‘He was just protecting himself after all.’
Neighbour Clem Williams, who has lived on the road for 20 years also questioned the man’s arrest, asked: ‘Why were the men at his house? The man has a right to defend his home. They should let him go.’
According to the Sun, friends of the dead crook have threatened to take their revenge on Osborn-Brooks;
And now a former acquaintance of dead burglar Henry Vincent says that the late crook, 37, has pals who “won’t rest until they get their revenge” for killing “one of their own”.
They told Mail Online: “I know that Henry Vincent would have killed the pensioner first if he could have got away with it, but they will act like he’s the victim in all of this.
“This poor man and his wife won’t be safe going back into their own home.
“Anything could happen.”
Friends of Vincent erected a shrine to him outside of Osborn-Brooks’ home to which neighbors took offense. One neighbor tore down the shrine;
Relatives of Vincent restored the memorial only to have it removed again, according to the Standard;
Earlier Elvina Lee, who said she was Vincent’s first cousin, called whoever had initially pulled the tributes down “scum” and labelled 78-year-old Mr Osborn-Brooks a “murderer” and a “lowlife”.
She said: “This is the best place for these flowers to be. I don’t know what’s wrong with these people (who dismantled them)… I think they’re scum.”
Regarding Vincent she said: “He was like a brother to me, he loved his family and his three babies. He wasn’t a murderer, he wasn’t a rapist, they’re putting (sic) him as a monster.
“Murderer? The murderer is over there.”
Osborn-Brooks has since been released by police, but him and his wife are in hiding because of the threats. They are unable to return to their home because they defended it from thieves.
