Camden Islington & West End - News Reviews Listings

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Friday 2nd December, 2005

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By KIM JANSSEN and CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS

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Tribute to football fan

FRIENDS of a Chalk Farm football fan murdered in Amsterdam on Thursday paid their tribute to the “peaceful man” they knew this week.
Brendan O’Connor, 36, a lifelong Middlesborough supporter who lived in Belmont Street, was stabbed to death outside a bar before his team’s Uefa clash with AZ Alkmaar.
Dutch police have arrested a 42-year-old suspect but British officers say there is no evidence to suggest the attack was football-related.
A friend of Mr O’Connor’s from Teeside remains in hospital in Amsterdam suffering from stab wounds.
Close friend David Halliwell, 33, also from Camden, told the Evening Standard: “I’m just numb.
“I still feel like he is going to walk through the door.
“This was a callous act and he had never had a fight in his life.
“There are people in life who are genuinely nice – people often say that but, but Brendan was.
“He ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Mr O’Connor’s wife, Tanya, is understood to be being comforted in Kent by her family.
Det Chief Supt Mark Braithwaite, who is liasing with Dutch police, said: “Brendan’s death is an isolated criminal act and nothing to do with football at all. This confrontation could have happened to anybody at any place in any town centre.”
Neighbours yesterday (Wednesday) described Mr O’Connor as quiet and smart.
Sarah Taylor, 50, a neighbour of six years, said:
“They were such a nice couple, you’d never see them fight or hear an argument.
“She must be devastated.”

Attitudes mature to English wine

WHEN Hugh Johnson published the first edition of his book Wine in 1966, there were three commercial vineyards in England.
FULL STORY

This Heath price hike is just not cricket

THIS summer’s Ashes success didn’t just help us armchair types suss out our full toss from our wrist spin.
FULL STORY

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