His voice has not been heard in public for 19 years, after he addressed a jury at his Nottingham Crown Court trial, protesting his innocence over the senseless killing of Marvyn Bradshaw, a 22-year-old shop fitter with no previous convictions from Top Valley. O'Brien was found guilty of his murder after a jury found he was the hooded gunman who blasted shots into a car Marvyn was driving, and who later died from his devastating injuries in hospital.
Aged 23 at the time, O'Brien, then from Wendover Drive in Aspley, was sentenced to life in prison July 2004, with the recommendation that he serve a minimum of 24 years, later reduced to 18 years. Now he has spoken on reformed ex-career criminal Marvin Herbert's YouTube channel, and revealed how, "I ****** up, and "I ****** up too many other peoples' lives".
Speaking on New Year's Eve, and referring to Marvin as "Bro" and "Brother", O'Brien, also known by the nickname "Jay", told of his reaction after learning his mother, Joan Stirland, 53, and step-dad, John, 55, had been killed - to be described later to a jury as being in revenge - because the gunmen could not get to O'Brien himself.
