Detectives investigating the brutal murder of a City solicitor released CCTV images today of the two suspects committing an earlier robbery at a Tube station last Thursday night.
Scotland Yard had already released pictures of Thomas ap Rhys Price passing through the ticket barriers at Kensal Green Tube station in North London on 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.
Today, police released grainy pictures of two men - believed to be the suspects - carrying out a robbery at the same station shortly beforehand.
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The four CCTV stills show the two suspects at Kensal Green station. They disembark from a northbound Bakerloo line train at 11.05pm and rob an Asian man on the same platform just a minute later, taking a mobile phone, Tube pass and cash.
The victim reported the robbery to station staff, who took his name, but he did not want the matter reported to police. It was only when detectives asked British Transport Police whether there had been any recent robberies at the station and inquiries were made of staff there that the incident came to light.
The victim, who was not injured in the robbery, has now been interviewed by police.
The first of the four CCTV images released today shows the two suspects on the platform just before they approach the man, while in the second they can be seen standing over him as he sits on a bench. The third and fourth images, which do not clearly show the faces of the robbers, are of them in the ticket hall as they leave the station at 11.07pm.
“Having committed the robbery they are seen leaving the station ten to 15 minutes before Tom. They are described as black, wearing dark clothing with hooded tops. One is taller than the other, one medium build, the other slim, both in their early teens to early 20s.”
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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.
“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, gratuitous and sustained attack”.
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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.
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.
Residents reported hearing a man shouting: “What more do you want from me? You’ve got everything.”
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