Two harrowing criminal cases in England have brought renewed scrutiny to how violence can erupt from paranoia and missed warning signs, leaving communities reeling in their aftermath. In the span of just one week in July 2024, two separate tragedies unfolded—one in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, and the other in Southport, Merseyside—each revealing unsettling truths about fear, vigilantism, and the systems meant to protect the public.
In the early hours of July 22, 2024, landscape gardener Alex Rose, 30, took matters into his own hands in a way that would prove deadly. According to court proceedings reported by multiple outlets, Rose and his friend Charles Pardoe, 25, mistook two young e-bike riders for burglars near Rose’s home in Manor Gardens, Sunbury, the previous evening. Acting on that suspicion, Rose embarked on a 60 mph chase down the M3/A316 slip road, driving the wrong way in his black pick-up truck, with Pardoe as his passenger and his girlfriend, Tara Knaggs, 25, on the phone throughout the pursuit.
The two riders, William Birchard, 21, and Darren George, 22, had not been anywhere near Rose’s home when he first suspected them, the court heard. In fact, they were simply on their way to a pub in Ashford. But the chase escalated quickly. After 12:50 am, the cyclists, desperate to escape, rode the wrong way around a roundabout and down the slip road. Rose followed, ultimately ramming his truck into the back of their e-bike. He then performed a three-point turn and drove past the men as they lay gravely injured on the tarmac.
Birchard died at the scene, succumbing to catastrophic head injuries, facial and skull fractures, and a severe brain injury. George was rushed to hospital but died later the same day. Their bodies were discovered in the road by a lorry driver, a detail that underscored the violence of the pursuit and its tragic consequences.
Rose and Knaggs were arrested at Birmingham Airport later that afternoon, while Pardoe and another friend, Samuel Aspden, were detained two days later. The trial at Guildford Crown Court resulted in both Rose and Pardoe being found guilty of two counts of murder by majority verdict. Rose was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 34 years, while Pardoe received a life sentence with a 29-year minimum term. Knaggs, found guilty of assisting an offender, was sentenced to three years in prison. Aspden, who had been driving around the area in his own car that night, was cleared of both murder charges.
The case shocked the local community and reignited debates over the dangers of vigilantism and the tragic cost of snap judgments. Prosecutors emphasized that neither Birchard nor George posed any threat; their only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The court’s findings made clear that the pursuit and subsequent violence were based entirely on mistaken identity and unfounded suspicion.
Just a week later, on July 29, 2024, another tragedy struck—this time in Southport, Merseyside. Axel Rudakubana, known in the public inquiry as AR, carried out a brutal knife attack at a children’s dance workshop, killing three girls—Alice Aguiar, Elsie Dot Stancombe, and Bebe King—and wounding eight other girls and two adults. The incident, which took place at 34a Hart Street, left the community and the country in shock.
The Southport Inquiry, convened at Liverpool Town Hall, has been examining AR’s history, his contact with relevant agencies, and whether there were missed opportunities to prevent the attack. According to testimony from Det Ch Insp Jason Pye, who led the Merseyside Police investigation, AR had been amassing an arsenal of weapons in his bedroom for at least two years prior to the attack. In 2023, he used two stolen driving licences to order machetes online from companies including Springfields, Knife Warehouse, and Hunting and Knives. Despite age restrictions, AR—then under 18—successfully signed for at least one weapon, while his parents intercepted two others.
Police later discovered a black holdall under AR’s bed containing a machete, a bow, and arrows. Further investigation revealed that he had also attempted to purchase a crossbow from Merlin Archery and Tactical Archery in October 2023, but both companies declined to sell to him. After AR was sentenced in January 2025 to a minimum of 52 years in prison, police found an unopened package containing another blade while clearing the house due to the discovery of ricin, a biological toxin, in AR’s bedroom.
The inquiry has also scrutinized the actions of individuals who might have intervened. Notably, the taxi driver who transported AR to the dance studio at 11:45 BST on the day of the attack did not immediately contact police, despite witnessing the chaos that ensued. The driver, Gary Poland, was recorded on his dashboard camera shouting at AR for not paying his fare and then leaving the scene as screaming children fled the building. He waited more than 50 minutes before dialing 999. When asked by counsel Nicholas Moss KC what he would expect from a responsible member of the public, Det Ch Insp Pye replied, "Accepting that he had no duty of care, I would like to think, morally, that a call would be made. There was enough evidence that we had that he knew what was happening. Yes you would have expected a phone call to come in."
Despite the horror, the inquiry has also highlighted acts of bravery and compassion. Window cleaner Joel Verite, for example, rushed into the scene alongside the first officers—Sgt Greg Gillespie, PC Luke Holden, and PCSO Tim Parry—to help the victims. Verite carried six-year-old Bebe King out of the building and also moved Alice Aguiar from where she had collapsed, using his t-shirt to stem the bleeding. Det Ch Insp Pye described the public response as "bad meeting good," emphasizing that, amid the chaos, "there was lots of good people and it's only right that we recognise the work that those people did."
Investigators found that AR’s phone contained the dance studio’s precise address, believed to have been saved after he saw an advertisement for a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on Instagram. This chilling detail underscored the premeditation behind the attack and raised questions about how online platforms and age verification processes can be exploited by determined individuals.
Both cases have prompted soul-searching across the UK. In Sunbury, the senseless deaths of Birchard and George have been a stark warning against vigilantism and the perils of acting on fear rather than facts. In Southport, the inquiry’s revelations about AR’s history and the missed opportunities to intervene have fueled calls for tighter controls on weapon sales, better coordination among agencies, and greater vigilance from both authorities and the public.
As the Southport Inquiry continues, and as communities in Surrey and Merseyside mourn their losses, the hope is that these tragic events will lead to meaningful change—so that suspicion, inaction, and preventable violence do not claim more innocent lives.
