Thomas Breen died after being stabbed in Camden High Street

IT’S horrible to think that a killer reads this newspaper, each year picking up a copy to see whether the police are any closer to finding them.

Detectives always believed that whoever stabbed Thomas Breen in Camden High Street may have been local or have some lasting connection to the area.

Part of our pledges on Camden’s unsolved murders, the New Journal publishes an appeal for help in finding the father-of-two’s killer on the anniversary every year.

While it is very much a cold case at Scotland Yard with officers only likely to come back to the investigation if a new lead breaks, we made a commitment to Mr Breen’s family back in August 2002 that we would make sure the case was never forgotten.

Next Wednesday, a painful 20th anniversary will tick by. It remains baffling to many that the killer was able to stab a man to death in one of London’s busiest streets and escape undetected.

Calamitous misfortune meant that although the High Street was, even then, covered by a myriad of CCTV cameras, none of them were pointing in the right direction on the fateful night Mr Breen was knifed at the junction of Jamestown Road.

It was late on August 10 but Camden High Street remains busy with people, particularly in the summer months – yet no witnesses to the attack could be found.

Thomas Breen’s family in Downpatrick

The canal was dredged in search of the murder weapon to no avail, while the friend that Mr Breen had been enjoying a night out was said to have had a memory blackout. Hypnosis was attempted – again with no luck.

The murder squad has instead been hoping for loyalties to change and for somebody to truly understand the ongoing horror for his family back home in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland; Mr Breen had been in London for construction work.

They can only hope now that one day somebody will come forward.

When we visited them in Downpatrick for a previous appeal, Lorraine Breen, his wife, said: “People say that even if they are never caught they will have to face being judged by God, but that is not enough for me.

“They need to face a court in this world, in this life. We just want to see justice done for Tom and to know that whoever did this won’t do it to any other family.”

The New Journal urges anybody who could hold the key to the case to contact police.