Michael Austin died in June 2003 after being attacked with a metal baseball bat or crowbar

THE 20th anniversary of the murder of a man near Farringdon station has passed without a whisper.

The mystery of who killed Michael Austin is a cold case which only gets colder by the year – and as the two-decade mark was reached this month, there was no new reward or appeal for information coming out of Scotland Yard. Mr Austin was 34 and living in Gospel Oak, when he was attacked with a baseball bat or possibly a metal bar late on June 12, 2003. He was left unconscious in Cowcross Street near Farringdon tube and rail station – dying from his injuries in hospital three days later, without ever waking up.

While the street at that time was covered by 47 CCTV cameras, only two of them were working and recording that night.

Two men believed to be in their 20s were pictured fleeing the scene and then meeting three other men outside a nearby nightclub, but their identities have remained a mystery to police. These suspects would now be in their 40s and have lived with their dark secret all this time.

When a case goes un­solved for this long, investigators often hope that changing loyalties can help lead to a break­through, as somebody finds it hard to live with the burden of knowing who essentially got away with murder.

Publicity is also key and the Tribune has a commit­ment to highlighting seem­ingly forgotten cases on significant anniversaries.
There is, after all, a list of cases in British criminal history which have been cracked years and years later.

Mr Austin’s mother, Betty, had feared her son would be forgotten when she spoke to the Tribune five years after his death and worried he was being unfairly characterised as street “junkie”. In the days after the killing, some national papers unfairly cast him as a beggar.

Mr Austin had struggled with heroin use but was attending a methadone clinic in King’s Cross every week. “The detectives used to come round every day after Michael died. Nobody bothers with me now,” Betty said in a heart-wrenching interview back then. “They weren’t interested in Michael because he was a drug addict and that’s the bottom line.”

Mr Austin was born in Brighton, but his father died when he was just one and his mother moved them to Thames­mead where he became a devoted Millwall fan. His life changed when he saw his best friend die in the Thames after they tried swimming in the river. He blamed himself and started taking drugs at an early age.

“I can’t see any motivation as to why they killed him,” Mr Austin’s mother had said. “He was a gentle giant who helped everyone he met. He didn’t deserve to be killed like that.”

A police spokes­woman has previously said: “All lines of inquiry have now been exhausted. However, if any new evidence comes to light it will be investigated.”

If you have any information which may help detectives reopen the case, please contact police now.