A FRESH appeal for witnesses to the murder of a City solicitor was made last night as police released CCTV images of the final minutes of his life.
The grainy pictures captured Thomas ap Rhys Pryce passing through the ticket barriers at Kensal Green Tube station in North London, before making his way home after a night out with colleagues. Minutes later, as he was walking to the house he shared with Adele Eastman, his fiancée, Mr ap Rhys Pryce was attacked and robbed by two young black men.
Mr ap Rhys Pryce, 31, a litigation lawyer with the firm Linklaters, may have been trying to defend himself when the robbers launched what police said was a “ferocious assault”, stabbing him in the chest, hands and head and leaving him bleeding heavily on the street.
The scene of the attack at Bathurst Gardens remained cordoned off yesterday as police teams continued to search for evidence.
Detective Superintendent Julian Worker, who is leading the investigation, said that he was sure that Mr ap Rhys Pryce’s attackers had left Kensal Green station not long before their victim. “We are concentrating on the search for witnesses who may have seen the suspects immediately prior, during or after the attack,” Mr Worker said.
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“We are now sure that the suspects exited Kensal Green station some 10 or 15 minutes before Tom. I would appeal for any witnesses that may have been in the Harrow Road, College Road or Bathurst Gardens between 11.20pm and midnight on Thursday and who may have seen the two suspects. Witnesses have come forward to say that there were two black men in Bathhurst Gardens before Tom walked into the road.”
Mr ap Rhys Pryce, a first-class honours graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, had spoken to his fiancée, also a solicitor, less than an hour before he was assaulted, calling her to say he was on his way home. But, police said, he fell victim to a “senseless, gratutitous and sustained attack”.
Police were quickly on the scene and Mr ap Rhys Pryce was taken to the Central Middlesex Hospital but was declared dead soon after arrival. In an emotional statement, his family said that no words could adequately express their sense of sadness and loss.
It said: “It was the happiest time of his and Adele’s lives when they became engaged in October 2005. They were so looking forward to getting married in September and to starting a family.”
Mr ap Rhys Pryce was born in October 1974 and “enjoyed an idyllic early childhood in Africa” before winning an exhibition to Marlborough College. He read Classics at Cambridge, gaining a first in June 1996.
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He stayed at Trinity for another year, doing an MPhil in Classics before studying law at City University, London, and Nottingham Trent University. He was awarded his Diploma in Legal Practice in July 1999. He joined Linklaters in May 2000. The suspects are said to be in their late teens or early twenties and about 5ft 6in tall. One is believed to have been wearing a hooded top. They are thought to have stolen property from Mr ap Rhys Pryce.
Residents reported hearing a man shouting: “What more do you want from me? You’ve got everything.”