A man has been convicted of causing the deaths of two young men after driving his black pickup truck in the wrong direction down a motorway slip road and colliding with an e-bike. The incident occurred during the early hours of July 22 last year in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey.
The victims, William Birchard and Darren George, were riding home from a pub when they encountered the accused, Alex Rose, and his friends. Rose had contacted the victims to assist him in searching for individuals he suspected of attempting to burglarize his home.
Allegations suggest that Rose intentionally crashed his pickup truck into the e-bike, causing Birchard and George to fall off, before driving away and returning past the injured victims without stopping to offer aid.
During the trial, it was revealed that Rose, along with his friends Charles Pardoe and Samuel Aspden, pursued the victims at high speeds, leading to the fatal collision. Prosecutors described the incident as a deliberate act of violence orchestrated by the accused trio.
The court heard that Birchard suffered fatal injuries, while George sustained severe head trauma and eventually succumbed to his injuries. Despite the tragic outcome, Rose and Pardoe were found guilty of murder, while Knaggs, Rose’s girlfriend, was convicted of assisting an offender.
The fourth defendant, Samuel Aspden, was acquitted of the murder charges. The prosecution emphasized that the victims were innocent bystanders who fell victim to the defendants’ misguided actions, emphasizing that the incident was not a mere accident but a deliberate and tragic event.
The defendants’ claims of the incident being accidental were refuted by the evidence presented during the trial, highlighting the calculated nature of the offense. The prosecution condemned Rose’s use of his vehicle as a deadly weapon and Pardoe’s complicity in the pursuit that led to the fatal outcome.