A 30-year-old man has been convicted of murdering two e-bike riders after deliberately driving his pick-up truck into them in the mistaken belief they had attempted to break into his home.
A jury at Guildford Crown Court found Alex Rose guilty of murder on Wednesday. Rose and his friend Charles Pardoe, 25, were convicted of murder for their roles in the deaths of William Birchard, 21, and Darren George, 22. Rose's girlfriend, Tara Knaggs, 24, was found guilty of assisting an offender.
Prosecutors told the court that on the night of July 21 Rose saw "movement in the darkness" at about 11:40 p.m. at his home in Sunbury, Surrey, and became convinced someone was attempting to burgle his property. He called Pardoe and the pair spent about an hour searching local streets for whoever had caused the movement, the jury heard.
During that search Rose encountered Birchard and George, who had been riding e-bikes after going out to meet a friend at a pub. Jurors were told the two victims had not been near Rose's home at the time of the suspected break-in. Rose chased the pair through Sunbury in his Ford Raptor pick-up at speeds in excess of 60 mph in 30 mph areas before driving the wrong way down a motorway slip road and deliberately colliding with the riders on the A316 southbound slip road onto the M3 shortly after midnight on July 22.
Birchard died at the scene and George suffered catastrophic head injuries and died a short time later, the prosecution said. After the collision Rose abandoned his truck in a street and ran home on foot. He then telephoned police to report his vehicle had been stolen, the court heard.
Rose and Knaggs later attempted to leave the country. While travelling to Birmingham Airport, Knaggs initially tried to book flights to Thailand and then secured one-way tickets for the pair to Istanbul. They were arrested in the departure lounge before boarding. The couple were found with no luggage and about £4,000 in cash. Knaggs told police she believed they were on a surprise birthday trip arranged by Rose, the court heard.
Mary Walford, a prosecutor from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Two men lost their lives as a result of Alex Rose wrongly believing that they were going to break into his property. This was a tragic case of the two victims simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Despite the defendants claiming that what happened that night was an accident, it was clear from the evidence that it was not. Rose used his car as a weapon and drove it deliberately at the e-bike in the mistaken belief that they had tried to steal from him, after systemically searching for them for an hour, before pursuing them at high speed. Pardoe did nothing to stop him committing murder and actively encouraged Rose in his search until its tragic conclusion."
The convictions follow a trial in which jurors heard extensive evidence about the search of the area, the pursuit through residential streets and the actions of the defendants before and after the collision. Sentencing is expected to be scheduled at a later date.