Charlie Chandler, one of four people on trial for a double killing at a Milton Keynes house party, has told a jury he played no part in the murders of two teenagers
The 22-year-old is alleged to have taken part in a gang related attack on party-goers at a house in the new city late on the night of Saturday, October 19 last year.
Teenagers Dom Ansah, 17 and his friend Ben Gillham-Rice, 17, were repeatedly stabbed when a gang of masked intruders burst into the house where a birthday party was being held for a young girl.
Both boys died from their injuries and two others were stabbed by the group, but survived.
Mr Chandler told Luton Crown Court, where he is on trial with three other people accused of the murders, that he thought he was going to a party with friends at the house in Archford Croft, on the Emerson Valley estate.
He said it was only when he and the group got out of a taxi that he saw the others were wearing masks as they climed a garden fence to get into the rear of the property.
He told the jury: “I had a feeling something was not right because no one climbs a fence with face coverings.”
And he said he remained by the garden gate and at no point did he enter the house that night.
Charlie Chandler and Clayton Barker, 20, along with two teenagers aged 17 and 16, who can’t be named because of their ages, have all pleaded not guilty to murdering Dom and Ben.
Mr Chandler, of Fitzwilliam Street, Bletchley and Mr Barker of Surrey Road, Bletchley, together with their teenage co-defendants, also plead not guilty to charges alleging they wounded with intent a 17-year-old youth and a 23-year-old man who were at the party that night.
At the start of the trial, which began in early November, 23-year-old Earl Bevans pleaded guilty to the two charges of murder as well as the two wounding with intent charges concerning the other two party guests.
During the month long trial, the court has been told there was a background to the murders with bad feeling between two rival gangs.
It’s alleged that gang members from a gang known as “B3” based in West Bletchley, had been tipped off that rivals from a gang known as M4 would be at the party.
All those on trial are said to have been members or associated with the West Bletchley gang.
Dom and Ben are said to have been members or associated through friendships with the M4 gang.
The jury have been told that after arriving at the house in a taxi, the four defendants and Earl burst into the rear of the house armed and masked.
In the lounge it’s alleged that Ben was stabbed six times, with one wound penetrating his heart and he died almost immediately.
Dom is said to have run from the house and, after being chased, was stabbed a total of 47 times about his body and limbs and one wound incised his lung.
He was rushed to hospital but died a short while later.
Giving evidence, Charlie Chandler told the court he was a type 1 diabetic and required insulin on a daily basis.
He said after leaving school at 16 he went to college where he studied carpentry.
He told the jury that he spent the day of the murders at his flat with his girlfriend, but went out in the afternoon to get some medication for his diabetes and did some food shopping
Later that day he said his girlfriend’s friend came to the flat and around 8pm Clayton Barker, who he knew and who sometimes stayed at his flat, also arrived.
He said: “We were all just listening to music, chilling and smoking a bit of weed.”
Later that night he said they had some brandy.
Mr Chandler said that as the evening wore on, he discovered Clayton Barker getting ready to go out and he learned he was going to a party.
He said he was told others he knew were outside his flat waiting and when Barker asked him “Are you coming?” he quickly grabbed his things and joined them outside where they all got in the taxi.
Mr Chandler said apart from him and Barker, also in the taxi were two teenage boys he knew, and Earl Bevans who he hadn’t met before.
Barrister Giles Cocking QC, who defends Mr Chandler, asked him: “Did you have a machete with you?”
He replied: “Not at all, No.”
Mr Cocking asked: “Did you see anyone in the taxi with a weapon?”
He answered: “No I did not.”
Continuing his evidence, Charlie Chandler told the jury the taxi made a brief stop at a garage where some of the group briefly got out before getting back in.
He said on arrival at the house where the party was being held, he and the others got out of the taxi and he said he walked into Archford Croft, telling the court that he was a couple of metres ahead of the others.
“As I looked round, the four lads were running towards the front door. I saw them heading towards the front door and that’s when I saw face coverings,” he said.
Asked by his barrister if he’d brought a mask along with him, he said he hadn’t.
He went on: “I had a feeling something was not right so I pulled my T-shirt up over my nose.”
The defendant then told the court he ended up standing by the back gate and said others had “climbed the fence into the back of number three.”
Mr Cocking then asked him: “Did you go into the house at any stage?”
Chandler replied: “No I did not.”
Asked by his barrister what he thought was going on, he replied “I didn’t know, but I had a bad feeling something was not right because no one climbs a fence with face coverings.”
He said he had been by the gate for 10 to 15 seconds when he heard a female screaming.
“After the screaming I saw a male run from number three past me towards The Redway and I then saw a group of males come bursting out of number three,” he told the court.
He said the lone male, followed by the group, turned out of sight, but moments later he saw him reappear, running back towards the house.
Mr Chandler said the person fell, allowing the others to catch him and attack him in the street.
He said as it was happening, he ran towards The Redway and stood by some bollards.
Asked why, he replied: “Because when the attack started I just wanted to get out of the way. I didn’t want to be part of it all.”
He described to the jury seeing Dom being attacked before getting to his feet and running to the front door of number three, before running back into the middle of the road where he was attacked again.
Chandler told the jury: “Dom got up and made his way to the front door and realised the door was locked and the attack continued in the middle of the road.
He described to the court seeing a male “hacking down while Dom cowed on the floor.”
The defendant then told the jury: “I could see a male with a machete swing up and down screaming ‘Get him, get him, f…ing get him!”
Chandler told the court “ I didn’t want to be involved, I wanted to keep my distance, because I was not involved.”
Again questioned by his barrister he claimed he hadn’t been armed with a machete at any stage and hadn’t attacked anyone.
He said when the boy managed to reach the front door for a second time he was again attacked by a male with a machete.
“Dom ran at the door again and that’s when I saw someone lunging with a machete and hit him in the back.”
He went on: “I saw Dom by the door with loads of blood coming from his side.”
Chandler said he then made off on foot running down The Redway.
He said he met up with the others who he had travelled with to the party and asked “what the f… had just happened?”
The court was then told how the group began jogging away from the scene and it was at that stage that he said he saw Earl Bevan put a knife down a drain.
He told how later that night he got a taxi to London because he wanted to speak to his mother and get some advice from her.
In London he said he told her what had happened and the next day he returned to Milton Keynes where he handed himself into the police.
Case proceeding
Sign up for your daily digest of local Bedfordshire news here:
https://www.bedsbulletin.com/bulletin/sign-up/
