Fugitive Killer Found Guilty of Murder After 39 Years on the Run
Paul Bryan, a fugitive killer, has been found guilty of murder after 39 years of evading justice.
In February 1984, when he was 22 years old, Bryan fatally stabbed 62-year-old Roman Szalajko in Kennington, south London.
Following the murder, he assumed the identity of another man named Paul Bryan, who was already deceased, and embarked on a life of traveling throughout Europe, including Portugal, Crete, Spain, and France.
His true identity remained concealed until his fingerprints were discovered on a bottle at the crime scene during a cold case review in 2013.
A Decade-Long Pursuit for Justice
It took a Scotland Yard detective over a decade to track down Paul Bryan and arrest him as he arrived in the UK from Portugal.
Bryan, who is now 62 years old and originally from Hammersmith, West London, not only admitted to having a false passport but was also found guilty of murder following a trial at the Old Bailey.
Detective Sergeant Quinn Cutler, who tirelessly searched for Bryan for over 10 years, expressed his personal satisfaction with the verdict, emphasizing the closure it brings to the Szalajko family after four decades of uncertainty.
Unmasking a ‘Fantasist’
Describing Bryan as a ‘fantasist,’ Detective Sergeant Cutler revealed that Bryan had lived most of his life under a false identity, pretending to be American and claiming military service.
However, nothing he professed about his life turned out to be true, making it challenging to discern what he had truly been up to for the past 40 years.
The evidence suggested that Bryan might have been a ‘heavy’ or ‘minder’ and that he killed Mr. Szalajko while enforcing a debt or settling a property deal gone wrong.
The Mysterious Murder of Roman Szalajko
The victim, Roman Szalajko, was known to be secretive and a gambler who kept substantial amounts of cash in his flat, which has since been demolished.
On the fateful morning of February 7, 1984, Mr. Szalajko was on the phone with a friend when he abruptly interrupted their conversation, exclaiming in English, “What do you want? Help! Help!” The call was abruptly terminated as the line was deliberately cut.
Concerned, the friend dialed 999, leading to the discovery of Mr. Szalajko’s lifeless body with a fatal stab wound.
The case went unsolved until Bryan’s fingerprints were identified years later.
A Complex Trail of Clues
Detective Sergeant Cutler pieced together Bryan’s movements by examining various records and evidence.
It was revealed that Bryan had applied for an emergency passport just three days after the murder.
Despite being arrested in London in 1997 for a minor drug offense, he seemed to have vanished in the late 1980s.
The breakthrough came when he applied for a new passport and returned to the UK voluntarily.
Police were ready to collect his DNA, which ultimately confirmed his involvement in the murder.
The Verdict and Sentencing
During the trial, Bryan denied the murder but refused to testify in his defense.
His defense claimed that he had gone to Mr. Szalajko’s flat as a ‘minder’ to retrieve documents, and another man, who had since passed away, was responsible for the murder.
However, the jury rejected these claims, finding Bryan guilty.
Judge Nigel Lickley KC remanded Bryan into custody, and he is set to be sentenced on December 8.
The conviction of Paul Bryan after nearly four decades on the run serves as a testament to the persistence of law enforcement in seeking justice for a heinous crime committed in the past.
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