FORMER Labour MP Stephen Pound has paid tribute to 87-year-old Thomas O’Halloran after the OAP was stabbed in a shocking incident while he was on a mobility scooter.

Mr Pound revealed he knew Mr O’Halloran as a former constituent during his political career.
Stephen Pound described the victim of the fatal stabbing as a “character who would cement the area”.

In an exclusive interview with GB News, the former Labour MP told Alex Phillips: “It’s my constituency and I live about half a mile away.

“Tom was a real local character, he would be outside Greenford station playing the accordion, occasionally the harmonica, he was a sweet, lovely man.

The 87-year-old had been collecting money for Ukrainian refugees with busking performances outside Greenford train station, according to reports.

Mr Pound said his lack of presence in the local community will cause “hurt”.

He said: “He was collecting money for Ukrainian refugees, there are things we can’t say at the moment because we don’t know the facts.

“But what I know is, Greenford is hurting about this. We had a fatal stabbing in Acton about two days ago, a 58-year-old woman was killed by a younger person.

“Ealing is not a dangerous, dodgy place, it’s not the wild west.

“Someone like Thomas O’Halloran, he was a very Ealing person, he comes from the Irish community which is very deep in our part of the world.

“He was well liked and well loved, but above all, he was one of those characters who would cement an area.

“The brutality, the cruelty and the evil of his death is really corrosive to us, and it will take us a while to recover, it’s going to hurt.”

Detectives investigating the murder have released images of a man who was seen running from the scene armed with a knife.

Police were called at 16:06hrs on Tuesday, 16 August to Runnymede Gardens, at the junction with Cayton Road, Greenford to reports of a man with stab wounds.

Officers responded and gave emergency first aid until the arrival of the London Ambulance Service and London’s Air Ambulance.