Thomas Breen was stabbed in Camden High Street on August 10, 2002

THE New Journal today (Thursday) asks anybody who has the key information which would finally unlock a forgotten murder investigation to stop thinking it is too late to contact detectives.

The killer – or killers – of father-of-two Thomas Breen are desperate for the temperature on the case to get as cold as ice.

Police no longer routinely issue appeals for help and they are relying on an unexpected new lead in order to have a reason to get the case files back out of the cabinets at Scotland Yard.

But our newspaper made a pledge to his grieving family that we would continue to report on the case until justice was done.

Mr Breen’s relatives, including his investigative journalist son, Stephen Breen, have always taken hope from other cases in criminal history which have taken years or even decades to finally bring the culprits to a courtroom.

Today (Thursday) marks the 21st anniversary of the night, Mr Breen – originally from Downpatrick in Northern Ireland, was fatally attacked at the crossroads where Camden High Street meets Jamestown Road and Hawley Road.

He had simply been enjoying a night off from work by having a few beers with a friend.

The 50-year-old’s family did not know Camden well before the tragedy but a baffling element for all concerned has always been how a killer could deliver a fatal blow, leave their victim dying and escape from one of London’s busiest streets undetected.

Even though it was late on August 10, 2002 – Camden was thronging with potential witnesses due to its enduring popularity as a place to go for drinks and entertainment. Police were hampered at several turns.

Although Camden  High Street is well covered by CCTV, all of the cameras that might have been of use to the murder squad were facing in the wrong direction when Mr Breen was stabbed.

Meanwhile, the friend who he had been with that night, Brian McGarry, was traumatised.

He had been cut too and, although he recovered from his injuries, he struggled to piece together a clear description of their attacker. At one stage, hypnosis was tried in an attempt to draw out a more accurate memory.

One theory was that the murder weapon may have been dropped in the nearby canal by the killer as they escaped the murder scene. Police divers went into the murky waters but this drew a blank too.

All cold case units hope that, as the years pass by, loyalties change.

Killers often struggle to keep a deadly secret to themselves and may have told at least a handful of people about what they had got away with.

Some of those who learned this critical information may well be reading this week’s issue of the New Journal.

Mr Breen’s family has always appealed for those in the know to come forward so that they can finally get some level of peace.

Life in Downpatrick has not been the same since his death and the New Journal once travelled to Northern Ireland and saw how the grieving never really stops for his relatives – but especially so with nobody ever being charged.

His wife Lorraine told the New Journal during that interview: “Everything just goes into shock when you get the call. You just go into shutdown when somebody on the other end of the phone is telling you that your husband has died.

“And died like this. It wasn’t until a month later before we could even bring him home. Imagine having to wait like that. When we did, we had a funeral service in the church in Downpatrick and the number of people who came was amazing.

“I didn’t realise how many people knew him. I still have people coming up to me and saying: You don’t know me but I knew Tom and he was a good man, he helped me out with this or he helped me with that. That was Tom’s nature.”

Each year, a bouquet is left at the crossroads where the stabbing took place. It is a symbol from somebody somewhere that Mr Breen hasn’t been forgotten.

We haven’t forgotten the case either, and this is our annual August appeal for those with information to now call the police. After all these years, his family really do deserve to know the truth.