Thomas Breen died in August 2002 after being attacked on a night out

EVERY year a bouquet of flowers is left in Camden High Street – and it’s painful to think that most people may have forgotten why.

It’s an aching reality too that every year the New Journal publishes an appeal for justice in the unsolved killing of Thomas Breen, that the man who fatefully wielded the knife 22 summers ago may be out there reading our articles, smiling and feeling like they have got away with murder.

In the aftermath of the sheer tragedy which unfolded in Camden Town on August 10, 2002, our newspaper made a pledge to the father-of-two’s family that we would always keep on calling for people to come forward with the information that detectives may need to secure a long-overdue conviction.

His relatives have seen other cold cases cracked with unexpected breakthroughs and, while you are unlikely to see Scotland Yard devote more resources to appeals and rewards on the anniversary this week, there is always hope.

That is, as long as what happened to Mr Breen is not forgotten. Saturday marks another year since he was attacked during a night out – fatally knifed at the point the High Street meets Jamestown Road.

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.

It was late but Camden High Street remains busy with people, particularly in the summer months – yet no witnesses to the attack could be found, or were willing to come forward.

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Thomas Breen with his wife Lorraine

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

The case was last seriously reviewed by the Met in 2017 after pressure from the former director of public prosecutions, Sir Keir Starmer – as the MP for Holborn and St Pancras.

“There are no time limits on justice,” he said at the time. As with most historic, unsolved cases, the murder squad has been hoping for loyalties to change and for somebody to truly understand the ongoing horror for Mr Breen’s family back home in Northern Ireland.

Mr Breen had been in London for construction work when he died. When we visited them in Downpatrick for a previous appeal, Lorraine Breen, his wife, told of her hope that one day time would catch up on her husband’s killer.

She 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.