Wanted British fugitive arrested in Romania

A British fugitive suspected of murder and named on a list of Europe’s most wanted men has been arrested in Romania, it emerged yesterday.

Shane O’Brien, the prime suspect in the murder of 21-year-old Josh Hanson, was detained by police in Romania.

The British authorities will now begin the process of applying to have the 31-year-old man extradited to the UK.

In October 2015, Mr Hanson was found with a serious wound to his neck in a bar in Eastcote, North West London.

A post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as haemorrhage, inhalation of blood and an incised wound to the neck.

Mr O’Brien was thought to have fled the country in a private jet shortly after the killing and landed in Germany.

He was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and assault in Prague in February 2017 and was believed to be using the name Enzo Mellonceli. Despite him being the subject of a massive international manhunt, Czech police did not check his fingerprints against European databases.

He had dramatically changed his appearance by growing his hair and a full beard.

Mr O'Brien, originally from Ladbroke Grove in North London, is said to have used aliases including Enzo Machado.

Tracey Hanson, the mother of Josh, has spent thousands of pounds printing and laminating copies of a wanted posters in numerous languages before sending them to European countries in the hope of tracking down her son’s killer down. Their campaign has also featured on social media sites.

In November last year, she wore a sandwich board and handed out the posters to commuters in London. A £50,000 reward is on offer for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of her son’s killer.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “Josh's family have been kept fully up to date with developments.”