Jurors at Preston Crown Court have found that a former Channel 4 quiz show contestant committed assault and carried a bladed article after he lunged across a table and stabbed a rival at a Countdown fan club tournament.
Prosecutors told the court that John Cowen, 31, ran into the Wainwright Social Club function room in Blackpool just after 11:30 BST on 14 September 2024, carrying a knife in his left hand before heading straight for fellow fan and competitor Thomas Carey. CCTV played to the jury showed Cowen entering the venue and, according to prosecutor Rosalind Scott Bell, the knife was “glinting as he walks past the camera.” She said Cowen then broke into a run, lunged across a table and jabbed his left hand toward Mr Carey, who was pushed back into a seat and then grabbed the defendant’s wrist in an attempt to stop the assault. By that point Mr Carey had been stabbed.
Others in the room pulled Cowen away and restrained him on the ground before police arrived. Mr Carey, who the court heard had been a member of the Countdown fan club since 2011 and knew Cowen from previous events, was taken to hospital for treatment to a stab wound to his left bicep. Police searched Cowen on arrest and found a second kitchen knife in his pocket, the prosecution said.
Judge Guy Mathieson told jurors he had ruled Cowen unfit to plead and directed them to determine the facts of what happened. The jury returned findings that Cowen had committed assault and had been in possession of a bladed article in a public place. Cowen was not present in court; jurors were told he is “seriously mentally unwell” and is being treated in hospital.
Cowen, from Morecambe, Lancashire, is a Cambridge mathematics graduate who first appeared on Countdown in 2017. The court heard he scored the third-highest total in his series and later competed in a further 11 episodes, winning eight consecutive contests before being defeated.
A sentencing hearing was adjourned to 30 September to allow for psychiatric reports to be prepared. The court has not imposed a penal sentence because the statutory process requires the facts to be determined where a defendant is found unfit to plead and a report on mental health is awaited.