Alex Rose and his friend Charles Pardoe have both been found guilty of the double murder of William Birchard and Darren George while Rose’s girlfriend Tara Knaggs has been convicted of assisting an offender
Murderer Alex Rose’s 999 call to falsely report his black Ford Ranger Raptor stolen
In a 999 call a murderer falsely reported his pickup truck had been stolen on the night he used it ‘as a weapon’ to plough into and kill two young men riding an e-bike after he mistakenly thought they were burglars trying to break into his home. In the call, made hours after the fatal crash on the wrong side of the M3 motorway slip road in Sunbury-on-Thames, Alex Rose pretended to the police operator someone had broken into his home to take the keys to his black Ford Ranger Raptor and stolen it.
The full recording has now been released after Rose, 30, and his friend Charles Pardoe, 25, from Feltham in Hounslow, were found guilty of murdering William Birchard, 21, and Darren George, 22. Landscape gardener Rose and Pardoe pursued the bike riders at speeds in excess of 60mph after Rose had suspected they were trying to burgle him when he saw “movement in the darkness at the rear of his house” in Manor Gardens, Sunbury, earlier in the evening on July 21, 2024.
Jurors heard during the trial at Guildford Crown Court that neither Mr Birchard nor Mr George were “anywhere near” Rose’s home when he first suspected he had seen burglars, and had been on their way to the pub in Ashford at that time. Rose, who had previously been a victim of burglary at his business premises, called Pardoe to meet up and they drove around in his black Raptor for over an hour hunting for who he thought he’d seen.
It was during this time that Rose and Pardoe spotted Mr Birchard nor Mr George on a black Talaria Sting e-bike and he mistakenly became convinced they were for part of the group he had been searching for and he chased after the e-bike along Green Street to the Sunbury Cross roundabout, exceeding speeds of 60mph in a 30mph zone.
After encountering Rose and Pardoe at around 12.50am, the victims drove their e-bike the wrong way round the roundabout and the wrong way down the M3/A316 slip road in an attempt get away. Rose followed the e-bike down the slip road in his pick-up truck before driving the vehicle into the back of it, before making a three-point turn and driving away, past the pair lying on the tarmac.
The victims were discovered in the road by a lorry driver. Mr Birchard died at the scene having suffered fatal head injuries, fractures to his face and skull and a severe brain injury, while Mr George died later the same day in hospital. Neither man had been wearing a helmet.
The Ford Ranger Raptor registered to Rose was soon identified by police and found parked up close by. Several hours later Rose made the 999 call to police to report his truck stolen. This was a false report, and Rose subsequently pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice.
Throughout the pursuit, Rose had been on the phone to his girlfriend Tara Knaggs, 25, who was at his home. A jury found Rose and Pardoe guilty of two counts of murder by a majority verdict at Guildford Crown Court on Wednesday (September 10) following their four week trial. Knaggs was unanimously found guilty by the same jury of assisting an offender.
A day after the false 999 call, police tracked Rose and Knaggs to Birmingham Airport where they were about to board a one-way flight to Istanbul with his girlfriend, Knaggs. The flight had been booked just hours before, they had a single carry-on bag between them containing a few items of clothing and more than £4000 in cash.
The following day, Pardoe and a second man, Samuel Aspden, were also arrested. The fourth defendant, 26-year-old Aspden, from Walton-on-Thames, who was another of Rose’s friends who had driven around the area in his own car the same evening. He was found not guilty of both murder charges and not guilty of causing death by dangerous driving. Rose, Pardoe and Knaggs are all due to be sentenced on Monday, September 22.
Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Inspector Debbie Birch, from the Surrey and Sussex Police Major Crime Team, said: “Rather than call the police when he witnessed suspicious activity at the back of his property, Alex Rose summoned his friends to join him on a vigilante hunt through the streets of Sunbury. He intended to take the law into his own hands, and his actions have led to the tragic loss of Darren and William, two young men who should have had their whole lives still ahead of them.
“Following the collision, Alex Rose fled the scene, demonstrating a total lack of regard for anyone except himself. Telephone data shows he and his friends had their mobile phones on them and were in contact with each other the entire time, yet they all made a conscious decision not to call an ambulance or seek help for the two young men they left fatally injured on the slip road.
“Instead of taking responsibility for his actions, Rose attempted to flee the country, assisted by his girlfriend Tara Knaggs, who made their travel arrangements, paid for their flights, and travelled with him to Birmingham Airport where they were apprehended.”
Mary Walford, senior crown prosecutor at CPS South East, 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.”
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