Martin Cosser has spoken of his grief following the death of 17-year-old Charlie – affectionately known as “Cheeks” for his infectious smile – after he was stabbed in West Sussex
A devastated dad has spoken of his grief at having to decide to switch off his son’s life support machine after he was stabbed at a school end-of-term party.
Martin Cosser paid tribute to 17-year-old Charlie, whose gruesome injuries included a ruptured bowel, a ruptured spleen, and swelling to his brain, following the attack. Charlie did not know his killer, 16-year-old Yura Varybrus, who plunged a knife into the teenager three times following a dispute on the dancefloor at the farmhouse in West Sussex.
Charlie went into cardiac arrest in the ambulance and, despite a four-hour operation, the boy’s life support machine was turned off 48 hours later. Recalling the trauma, Martin, 50, said today: “I was there for his first breath when he was born, then I had to watch him die after losing every milligram of blood in his body, two traumatic cardiac arrests, a ruptured bowel, a ruptured spleen, and swelling to his brain… It’s a lonely place to be (now), as if I’m still standing next to Charlie’s bed and we’re switching off his life support machine.”
Around 100 teenagers, many celebrating the end of A-levels, were at the party in July 2023. Martin continued: “He’d originally planned a night in Guildford and that can be horrible, but this was at a private farmhouse. He should have been able to go to a party and come back home.
“I’d never spoken to my children about knife crime because, ignorantly, I thought it was just a problem in gangs. I had no idea young people were carrying knives here. I knew my own children wouldn’t, but what I didn’t legislate for was the behaviours of others.”
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Police knocked loudly at the door of the family home in Surrey at 12.30am. They were rushed to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, where Charlie – affectionately known as “Cheeks” for his infectious smile – was taken to surgery. This was stopped after four hours when doctors encountered complications to the internal bleed caused by the cut to the boy’s aorta.
Dad-of-three Martin said: “No family should ever go through that and no amount of time will ever heal those scars… I remember Eloise [Charlie’s younger sister] saying, ‘Is he gone?’ I actually can’t talk about it because it’s so traumatic.”
Eloise, now 18, has spoken of her pain in a separate interview this week. She and the rest of her family continue to campaign against knife crime. Martin, who is a self-employed insurance broker, has spoken at more than 200 schools and his local MP, Jeremy Hunt, said earlier this year that it was impossible not to be “blown away emotionally” when listening to him.
Martin, who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after the murder, told the Daily Mail: “Of course there’s always a bit of anxiety if any of your children are out, but I never feared for Charlie’s safety because I knew he’d never invite trouble.
“I saw Charlie lying there in the hospital. I held his hand and I said, ‘I promise you, mate, I’m going to tell everyone about you, and I’m going to educate people about the dangers of knife crime’.”
- The Killing of Charlie Cosser, part of the TV series TikTok: Murder Gone Viral, airs on ITV1 and ITVX at 9pm on Tuesday, October 21. For more information, or to donate to Martin’s charity, go to charliespromise.org
