Former Countdown winner John Cowen has been handed an ‘indefinite hospital order’ after a stabbing incident in 2024.

The Channel 4 contestant, 31, who appeared on the show in 2017, attended an unofficial Countdown tournament in September 2024, where it is said he ran across the room with a knife and wounded rival Thomas Carey in the arm.

CCTV footage capturing Cowen as he entered the room at the Wainwright Social Club in Blackpool, Lancashire, shortly after 11.30am was shown to the jury at Preston Crown Court in September.

‘“You were in possession of two kitchen knives and already held one of them in your hand – clearly to be used as a weapon,” Judge Guy Mathieson said.

“This was a terrifying incident of deliberate violence with a knife which could have caused far more serious injury a

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