A judge at Preston Crown Court has ruled that a former Channel 4 Countdown champion accused of stabbing a rival at an annual tournament is unfit to stand trial, after psychiatric assessments concluded he cannot participate in criminal proceedings.
John Cowen, 31, was arrested after police say he attacked Thomas Carey with a knife at the Countdown in Blackpool event last September. Cowen faces charges of section 18 wounding with intent and possession of a bladed article. Carey, who is in his 20s and a former Cambridge University mathematics student, was taken to hospital for treatment following the alleged incident.
Judge Guy Mathieson said the decision followed assessments by two psychiatrists who determined Cowen was unfit to stand trial. Rather than proceed to a full criminal trial, the court will hold a finding of fact hearing before a jury. Not guilty pleas will be entered on Cowen's behalf at that hearing, the judge said.
Cowen appeared in court via video link from the secure psychiatric unit where he is being treated. Court descriptions said he sat dressed in dark grey with his hands clasped during the brief hearing. The finding of fact hearing is scheduled to begin before a jury tomorrow, the court was told.
The alleged attack took place during the annual tournament that brings together former winners of the long-running Channel 4 word-and-number game show. Carey had been listed as number three on the event leaderboard going into the competition; he had won a previous tournament in 2022 but did not participate in the opening round after the alleged attack, organisers of an online Countdown community said.
Both men are well-known within the Countdown competitive community. Cowen, from Morecambe, Lancashire, made his TV debut on the show in 2017 and earned a reputation for strong performances in both the letters and numbers rounds, reaching the series finals as the third seed that December. He has been described as achieving multiple high scores, including four centuries, during his televised appearances.
Carey, from Bingley, West Yorkshire, has also been a prominent competitor. He first appeared on Countdown in 2015 as a sixth-form student and later topped a series leaderboard with a run of eight straight wins. Both Cowen and Carey have been active on Apterous, an online platform that replicates Countdown play; the site says Carey has organised the Apterous Masters tournament since 2019 and won the 2018 edition. The site posted that Carey was "unable to participate in the opening round" but did not comment on the alleged Blackpool incident.
Police charged Cowen following the incident and he has remained in custody at a secure psychiatric facility pending the court process. The court did not hear evidence about the factual circumstances of the alleged attack at the initial hearing; the forthcoming finding of fact hearing is to determine what occurred. Any subsequent steps, including whether a trial could proceed if the jury reaches certain conclusions, will follow the statutory procedures that govern cases where defendants are considered unfit to plead.
The Crown Prosecution Service declined to comment beyond court statements, and organisers of the Blackpool event did not provide an immediate response. The presiding judge set the timetable for the finding of fact hearing and directed that procedural safeguards be observed given Cowen's current medical assessment.