CCTV cameras have captured a man trying to use the stolen Oyster card of a young City lawyer stabbed to death just before he reached his Willesden home.

Last Friday at 10.18am, ten hours after the vicious murder of Tom ap Rhys Pryce, the suspect attempted to enter Kensal Green Station with the Cambridge graduate's smartcard.

At 11.10pm the previous night his killers were filmed at the same station as they robbed a second victim, an Asian male, on the platform.

CCTV stills issued by police show the two criminals leaving the station after the robbery.

Fifteen minutes later Mr ap Rhys Pryce followed unknowingly in their tracks. Around the corner, in Bathurst Gardens, they overwhelmed him as he neared the home he shared with his fiance, Adele Eastman.

They pair kept stabbing him even after they took his belongings. Multiple injuries, including fatal stab wounds to his chest, showed how the 31-year-old tried to defend himself.

The attack was "particularly vicious", said Detective Suprintendent Julian Worker.

"Tom was heard by a witness saying, 'You've got everything', or words to this effect. I believe the suspects still went on to stab him to death."

The Met's Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur vowed that his team would leave "no stone unturned" in the hunt for the killers.

"Tom was a promising, hard working young man with everything to live for. This has been snatched away by the actions of two individuals for little more than a few items of property."

Detectives said the youth filmed with the solicitor's Oyster card may be one of the killers, or may have obtained the card from the suspects.

When the card failed to work, he left the station. Police search teams found the card nearby.

The youth wore dark clothing with a light-coloured "pork pie" hat.

On the night of the murder the killers, described as black males in their teens or early 20s, both wore dark clothing. The one man's footwear was dark with light or florescent stripes on the front and sides, while the other one's top had a large light-coloured motif in front.

Police urged anyone who recognised the "distinctive" clothing of the killers, or people who may they have been robbed by the same suspects, to call 020 8247 7821.

  • Meanwhile Conservatives of the London Assembly have called on police to increase stop-and-searches in "knifing hotspots".

In a letter to mayor Ken Livingstone and Met chief Sir Ian Blair, they urged officers to flood streets where necessary a tactic used successfully in New York.

This would require a reform of current rules whereby officers who carry out a search have to spend more than seven minutes filling in forms.

Angie Bray, assembly member for West Central, said the murder of Mr ap Rhys Pryce revealed the "frightening reality that knife crime is still rising in some areas".

She added: "People carrying concealed weapons know they run a far higher risk of being caught if stop-and-searches are in operation."