Appeal Against Conviction Dismissed by Court of Appeal, Criminal Division – John Lloyd-Richards & Edward Warren appeared for the Crown
In August 2024 at Winchester Crown Court, John Lloyd-Richards led Edward Warren for the Crown in the trial of Amman Majid and Charlie Costen. The former was convicted of Attempted Murder. Charlie Costen was convicted of being involved in the attack and of causing Grievous Bodily Harm with intent.
Following the trial, Charlie Costen appealed against his conviction and was given leave with a hearing of the full Appeal before Lord Justice Popplewell, Mr Justice Soole and Mr Justice Bryan before the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division.
The facts of the case were that on the evening of 30th January 2024, the two Defendants were at a snooker club in Basingstoke and upon leaving came into contact with the 47 year old victim. The jury heard that when the victim refused to ‘set up’ his drug dealer for the young men to attack and no doubt rob of their wares, they chased him down whilst riding an e-bike, the victim riding a much slower pedal bike.
The Crown’s case was that Charlie Costen was riding the e-bike with Amman Majid riding pillion holding a machete type blade which was captured on dashcam footage. When the victim was stopped after the chase and refused to comply, he was led away to the Black Bridge in Buckskin by both these defendants. There he was subjected to a brutal attack with the machete causing, amongst other injuries, two fractures to his skull. The e-bike was then used to ‘make good’ the escape of the two defendants.
Charlie Costen was identified as attending the snooker club and leaving with Amman Majid around 30 minutes prior to the attack. The Crown’s case was that reflective strips seen on the back of the trousers worn by Charlie Costen at the snooker club were sufficiently distinctive and clear as to allow a comparison with footage captured by dash cam of the attackers pursuing the victim immediately prior to the offence.
The Crown argued that when the reflective strips were seen in the dashcam footage, they appeared to be in exactly the same position as those seen on Charlie COSTEN at the Snooker Academy at the back of the knee. As the chase of the victim on his pedal cycle by those on the e-bike came to an end, one could see on the footage that the rider of the e-bike took their right leg off the footpeg and held it in a more extended position. The events took place in the hours of darkness and the vehicle following which recorded the dashcam footage had its headlights illuminated. That footage therefore showed up the reflective portion of the trousers in stark contrast to the surrounding, relative, darkness. At the snooker club and the immediate surrounding area, the footage showed the reflective strips well, as the cameras were of an infrared type and served as a further comparison.
The Crown argued the jury were being asked to look at a reflective strip on the back of the knee area of the trousers and form a view as to whether that looked to be a reflective strip in the same area of the trousers seen earlier. They were also being asked to reach a common-sense view that trousers of that nature are not common.
At the Appeal hearing in early September 2025, the Court agreed that the evidence in this case was properly left to the jury to consider and that therefore the conviction of Charlie Costen was safe. The Appeal was thereby dismissed.
