Trafalgar Square killing: Lucas Antunes jailed for homeless man attack

A Harrods shop-worker who killed a homeless man who had asked for a cigarette has been jailed.

Lucas Antunes, 21, punched Desmond O'Beirne to the ground during a night out in Trafalgar Square in June 2017. The 51-year-old suffered a traumatic brain injury and died six months later.

Antunes admitted manslaughter and was jailed for three years and nine months.

His friend Luis Abella, 22, who kicked Mr O'Beirne as he lay on the floor, was not charged with manslaughter.

Abella admitted assault at an earlier hearing and was given a three-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

Lucas Antunes (left) and Luis Abella admitted attacking Mr O'Beirne

The Old Bailey heard how the pair had been drinking and dining with friends in London's West End after finishing a shift at Harrods on 3 June 2017.

Mr O'Beirne approached the group in Trafalgar Square to ask for a cigarette.

Footage played at the Old Bailey showed him walking away when Antunes, from Tottenham, landed a punch to the back of his head.

Abella, from Lambeth, then kicked Mr O'Beirne as he lay motionless.

A witness saw Mr O'Beirne bleeding heavily from the mouth and head.

"Larger than life" Desmond O'Beirne died six months after he was attacked

Sentencing Antunes, Judge Paul Dodgson said "a few seconds changed the lives of three people drastically".

"There is no doubt that anybody watching the CCTV would be shocked by the force that you, Antunes, used in punching someone whose only offence was to have bothered the group of which you were a part with a request for cigarettes, and who would not go away when told to.

"I of course recognise that you did not contemplate at all that your act would lead to his death but you must have known that to have hit him with such force would lead to some injury and perhaps some serious injury."

After the sentencing, a Harrods spokesman said the defendants were not members of staff but were employed by Buzz Retail, which provides workers for demonstrations in the department store.