A former Countdown champion has been detained in hospital indefinitely after attacking a rival player with a knife during a tournament in Blackpool. John Cowen, 31, from Morecambe, Lancashire, was found to have committed the attack on Thomas Carey at a Focal Countdown Group event at the Wainwright Club.
Preston Crown Court heard that Cowen, who has schizophrenia, ran across the room and stabbed Carey, who was treated for a wound to his left biceps. CCTV showed Cowen entering the club with a kitchen knife in his left hand and later being restrained by bystanders. Police found a second kitchen knife in his pocket.
Judge Mathieson ruled Cowen was unfit to stand trial, describing him as “seriously mentally unwell”. He ordered that Cowen remain in hospital under section 37/41 of the Mental Health Act, with a restriction order requiring the justice secretary’s consent for discharge. The judge said the attack was a “terrifying incident of deliberate violence with a knife which could have caused far more serious injury and possible lethality”.
The court heard Cowen had expressed discontent over fellow players using a mobile app to practise the game. Prosecutor Rosalind Scott Bell said Carey initially believed the knife was fake, but Cowen “kept coming towards him, lunged across the table and stabbed him”.
Cowen first appeared on Countdown in 2017, reaching the semi-finals, and later competed in the champion of champions tournament. He was an octochamp, having won eight consecutive games, and had won the Countdown teapot several times. He will remain at Guild Lodge psychiatric hospital in Preston.
