Boy who stabbed teen to death on dancefloor named as he's jailed for life (2024)

A teenage killer who stabbed a 17-year-old boy to death on a crowded dancefloor at an end-of-term summer party has been unmasked by a judge as he was jailed for life.

Charlie Cosser was knifed three times in the chest by Yura Varybrus, 17, at the event called BalFest, attended by around 100 people, at a farmhouse in Warnham, West Sussex, on July 23 last year.

The pair had never even met before the senseless attack, Brighton Crown Court heard.

Varybrus, who was 16 at the time, was found guilty of murder and having a bladed article following a trial. He was today jailed for at least 16 years.

Judge Christine Henson KC lifted automatic restrictions on naming Varybrus because of his age after applications by the press on Wednesday.

Restrictions continue to ban reporting of his address and where he is detained.

Judge Henson said: ‘This is a case that is a particularly grave crime and has attracted substantial national and local interest.

‘The level of youth crime in this case is likely to be of significant public interest at a private party attended by many young people.

‘Charlie Cosser’s death has shocked a community and the family have set up a charity to fight against knife crime. Disclosure may aid the local community in coming to terms with this incident.’

She added that the potential deterrent nature for others in identifying Varybrus in this case is crucial for the public interest and public protection in homicide cases.

‘The lifting of the restriction promotes public confidence in justice and the interests of the public receiving fair, accurate and unrestricted reporting of such crimes,’ the judge added.

Charlie’s dad, Martin Cosser, said the 17-year-old defendant’s minimum term of 16 years, minus 328 days already spent in custody, was ‘not enough’.

‘It’s not even a year for every year that Charlie lived to at 17. So I can’t say that I’m not disappointed with that. I expected it to be longer than that,’ the father-of-three said.

He added: ‘We haven’t even started grieving Charlie yet. We now have to try and start that process of making an adjustment and put behind us what as I say, I have to be honest, it’s been a really disappointing day for us.

‘He’s going to spend some time in prison but he will still have a chance to sit in front of a parole board in 15 years and two weeks’ time, and he will be able to sit there and say why he thinks he’s OK to come back out of prison.

‘The life sentence is ours. That’s the life sentence when it’s so severe when life is taken, it’s final. So Charlie is not coming home to us.’

Varybrus stabbed Charlie when a fight broke out between them and two other boys on the dancefloor after Varybrus and his friends were asked to leave the party following complaints about his behaviour towards a girl.

Opening the case on May 13, prosecutor Alan Gardner KC said: ‘In the darkness and noise of a crowded dancefloor his use of the knife and blows of the knife went unnoticed by those in the vicinity.

‘The defendant stabbed Charlie Cosser with that knife as they came together on the dancefloor.’

While the knife has never been found, witnesses at the party told jurors during the trial that they saw Varybrus ‘drenched’ in blood and heard him say ‘I’ve stabbed someone’ after the attack.

A guest at the party also captured part of the violence on video as she began filming her friends dancing to the song Toxic by Britney Spears under disco lights in the marquee.

The court heard that Charlie was still conscious when police arrived at 12.30am and was able to tell them his name, address and date of birth.

He suffered a cardiac arrest on the way to hospital, with internal bleeding caused by a cut to his aorta, the main artery from the heart.

The teenager, from Milford, Surrey, also known as ‘Cheeks’, died two days later, on July 25.

Varybrus did not give evidence in the trial but denied both charges.

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