Driver and passenger jailed for life for murder after hit-and-run on e-bike riders in Surrey

A driver and his passenger have been jailed for life for murder after ramming a pickup into two e-bike riders in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, in the early hours of July 22 last year. Alex Rose, 30, and Charles Pardoe, 25, were convicted of two counts of murder by a majority verdict at Guildford Crown Court and were sentenced to life in prison with minimum terms of 34 years for Rose and 29 years for Pardoe.

Prosecutors said Rose believed the two cyclists had tried to burgle his home on Manor Gardens earlier that evening and pursued them for about an hour. The victims, William Birchard, 21, and Darren George, 22, were on an e-bike and had been on their way to a pub in nearby Ashford when they were targeted. The court heard the bikers were not anywhere near Rose’s house at the time of the pursuit; they were simply out for a night ride. Rose and Pardoe drove at high speed, including a period of driving the wrong way down a motorway slip road, while Rose repeatedly spoke on the phone with his girlfriend during the chase. The two men attempted to escape by riding the wrong way around a roundabout and down the M3/A316 slip road, but Rose collided with the e-bike and drove off, leaving the riders in the road.

Birchard died at the scene from head injuries, facial fractures and a severe brain injury, while George died later in hospital. After the crash, Rose dumped the truck and fled on foot, later phoning police to report the vehicle as stolen and attempting to flee the country with Knaggs. The couple were intercepted at Birmingham Airport; Knaggs tried to book flights to Thailand before authorities stopped them in the departure lounge. A fourth man, Samuel Aspden, who had driven around the area that night, was arrested two days later but was cleared of murder charges.

Knaggs, 25, was jailed for three years after being found guilty of assisting an offender. Mary Walford, a Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor, said two men lost their lives as a result of Rose’s mistaken belief that they were going to break into his property and noted that the victims were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Walford added that Rose used his car as a weapon and drove it deliberately at the e-bike after an hour-long pursuit, and Pardoe did nothing to stop him and actively encouraged the chase until its tragic conclusion.