Paul Bryan: 'Fantasist' killer convicted of murder after 39 years on the run

Roman Szalajko, from Poland, was fatally stabbed in 1984

A "fantasist" killer who assumed the identity of a dead man who had the same name as him has been found guilty of murder some 39 years later.

Paul Bryan was 22 when he stabbed 62-year-old Roman Szalajko at the victim's south London home in 1984.

The Old Bailey heard the crime remained unsolved as Bryan, now aged 62, "simply disappeared" by assuming a false identity and moving abroad.

The Met unlocked the mystery after launching a cold case review in 2013.

Paul Bryan pictured in 1989

The court heard Mr Szalajko was attacked at his flat in Seaton Close, Kennington, in February 1984 and was found slumped dead in a chair with a single stab wound to the abdomen.

A number of fingerprints were recovered from the flat but in 1984 they could not be uploaded to a central database to see if they matched police records, the court heard.

'Nothing he says is true'

In 2013, the Met began a review of unsolved crimes and Mr Szalajko's death was one of the cases selected.

The trial heard that an unidentified fingerprint from the original police investigation was put through a database and matched those of a man called Paul Bryan, however detectives had trouble finding him because from the records it "looked as if he had simply disappeared".

Roman Szalajko was stabbed at his flat in Seaton Close, Kennington

Det Sgt Quinn Cutler, who searched for him for more than 10 years, discovered that Bryan had assumed the identity of another Paul Bryan who was Welsh, older than the defendant and had died in 1987.

Speaking outside the court, he described Bryan as a "fantasist" who "lived the majority of his life as another person".

"Nothing he says is true and it's very hard to understand what he has actually done for the last 40 years," he said.

The force also compared DNA evidence from the scene with hair taken from the defendant's dead mother's hairbrush, provided to them by her former husband, which showed a "very strong connection" with those recovered from the scene.

Det Sgt Cutler said the Met took Bryan's DNA and got a "one in a billion hit" that he was the man involved in the murder of Mr Szalajko.

Paul Bryan's DNA was taken after he was arrested at Stansted Airport

It emerged that Bryan had been living under his assumed identity in Spain and Portugal and he was arrested as he flew into Stansted from Portugal, of his own accord, in November 2022.

Bryan told police he changed his identity details because he wanted to appear older to his wife.

He also claimed to have suffered memory loss following a car crash in Lisbon in 1989.

At the Old Bailey trial, Bryan chose not to give evidence in his defence and was found guilty of murder, having previously pleaded guilty to possessing false identity documents.

He was remanded in custody and is due to be sentenced on 8 December.

Additional reporting by PA Media.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [e-mail]