Two men face jail for attack on homeless man in Trafalgar Square

Two men who admitted their part in the fatal attack on a homeless man in Trafalgar Square will be sentenced today.

Agency workers Lucas Antunes and Luis Abella had finished shifts at Harrods when they attacked 51-year-old Desmond O’Beirne at around midnight on June 3 2017.

The victim was seen in CCTV footage to be walking away when Antunes, 22, landed a punch to the head, sending him to the ground, and Abella, 22, appeared to kick him.

Mr O’Beirne never recovered consciousness and died from a brain injury on December 20 2017.

Last year, police offered £20,000 to anyone who could help track down the culprits.

In April, Mr O’Beirne’s sister Vivienne Folan said: ‘My brother Desmond was hard-working and larger than life.

“He was on a night out in Trafalgar Square when he was brutally and viciously attacked by two cowards who then calmly walked away and left him for dead.”

Following the appeal, Antunes, of Tottenham, north London, was tracked down by authorities in the United States and returned to face justice in Britain.

He pleaded guilty to manslaughter while Abella, from Lambeth, south London, admitted attempted assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The victim, originally from Ireland, was said to have had an itinerant lifestyle and had a sister living in Wales.

Abella originally faced a manslaughter charge but it changed to the lesser charge following a review.

The defendants will be sentenced by Judge Paul Dodgson at the Old Bailey.

A Harrods spokesman has said the defendants were not members of staff but were employed by Buzz Retail, which provides workers for demonstrations within Harrods, both for less than a year, in 2017.