Shane O’Brien will spend at least 26 years behind bars for the murder of Josh Hanson, although justice was anything but swift.

O’Brien slashed the throat of Hanson on October 11, 2015, but it would take a three-and-a-half-year international manhunt to finally take him down.

In order to evade escape, he changed his appearance and travelled using false travel documents, before eventually being nabbed in Romania earlier this year.

Some details via Sky News:

Mr Hanson, a council worker, was seen stumbling and clutching his throat after O’Brien inflicted a 37cm wound from his left ear to right chest.

O’Brien then calmly left the bar and got a friend, known as “Vanessa”, to organise a private plane to take him to the Netherlands…

Following the killing, O’Brien’s friends helped him to lay low after he was added to both Europol and Interpol’s most wanted lists.

The fugitive grew long hair and a beard and covered over a tattoo of his child’s name in an effort to hide his identity.

He travelled through Germany, Belgium and the Czech Republic while evading authorities.

O’Brien managed to slip through the net even after being arrested for assault in Prague in 2017, when he used the alias Enzo Melloncelli and skipped bail.

Authorities say O’Brien was “funded, provided with false documents, [and] encrypted mobile phones” which are all means “well beyond the capability of the ordinary criminal”.

Below, you’ll hear Detective Chief Inspector Noel McHugh describe the lengths authorities went through to catch their man:

[source:skynews]