Stab victim 'was family man looking for work'

Police were today continuing to question a man in connection with the death of an Irishman who was stabbed in an unprovoked attack outside a London pub.

Thomas Breen, 50, had been commuting to Britain to find work in a bid to provide for his wife and two teenage sons at home in Ireland, police said.

He was taken by ambulance to the Royal Free Hospital, north London, where he later died, following an altercation with two men outside the Oxford Arms, in nearby Camden, on Saturday evening.

A friend, who had been drinking with him at the pub, was also knifed during the fight but was later released after he received treatment at the University College Hospital, north London.

Detective Chief Inspector Allan Aubeelack, who is leading the murder investigation, said the killing was an “unprovoked and brutal assault” on a man who had been trying to support his family.

“From the witnesses we have at the moment, it appears that this was an unprovoked attack,” he said.

“This is obviously tragic for the family who have lost a husband and a father.

“I would like to do anything I can to bring the people who have done this to justice - and I need the public’s help in that.”

He said it was a busy Saturday evening and there would have been lots of people who would have seen the incident.

“I would also appeal to anyone who may have heard about this - a friend or a colleague acting strangely who said something about the incident. If they have suspicions please, please, come forward.”

Mr Breen’s elder son, Stephen, said: “This is a tragic event to have befallen my family and one which we are still struggling to come to terms with.”

Mr Breen, 28, a journalist with the Sunday Life newspaper in Belfast, added: “My father was killed in a brutal and totally unprovoked attack.

“This was a man who was in London just working to provide for his family only to be stabbed to death in the street by thugs and cowards.

“All my family want now is to see justice served and the people responsible for my father’s murder brought to book.”

The first of the two white men is described as 5ft 10ins tall, of medium build, approximately 30 years old and wearing a black leather jacket.

The second man was aged between 20 and 30, of medium build, with dark short hair. He was wearing a distinctive maroon shirt with dark trousers.