Milton Keynes man jailed for trying to help two murderers flee the UK

A Milton Keynes man has been jailed for more than five years after trying to help a pair of murderers flee the UK.

Zarahn Zaman, 22, from Fullers Slade, took the two offenders’ clothes and travel documents and booked a ticket on the Eurostar plus a flight to Amsterdam for them to escape arrest, a court heard.

Brookton Lagan and Taison Cyrille had stabbed to death father-of-three Darren MacCormick outside his home in the early hours of January 9, 2020.

During the brawl, the pair also unleashed an attack on two other men - stabbing one in the leg and another in the head.

The stabbings, which happened in Didcot, Oxfordshire, could be traced back to a "trivial and relatively minor" row earlier in the evening about a drugs debt involving Lagan and a friend of Mr MacCormick.

After the murder, Lagan and Cyrille, both 19 years old at the time, tried to make a getaway for freedom to Amsterdam but officers managed to swoop in and arrest them 30 minutes before their flight took off from Luton Airport.

A judge heard that helping them escape was Zaman, one of Cyrille’s best friends.

Zaman "did everything in his power to help the men leave the jurisdiction" Oxford Crown Court court was told.

On Friday he appeared in the dock to be sentenced, wearing a white shirt and grey suit.

The judge heard how he had been drinking the night before the murder, celebrating his 19th birthday with friends.

In the morning, he heard about what happened and went to the family home of the men and agreed to collect a bag of belongings, including passports, clothes and money, which had been rallied up by their friends to help them start a new life abroad.

He used his phone to research tickets to Amsterdam and booked them flights at 6.20pm, 35 minutes after they were arrested in the airport.

Defending, Gareth James told Judge Ian Pringle: “The defendant had known Tyson Cyrille for a very long time and they became very close friends before this incident.

“It was sheer mis-judgement and misguided loyalty that he had agreed to help them escape. He’s now 22 years of age and at the time the court will be aware that he was just 19.

“He now has two children, he became a father for the first time at 18 years old. He involved himself in this through misguided loyalty and didn’t consider the consequences to himself, his girlfriend or his children.

“The defendant has had a lot of time to consider his actions and he deeply regrets what he did and should have prioritised himself.”

Zaman also accepted having purchased, retained and used a mobile phone that had been in the possession of Lagan at the time that Mr MacCormick was killed. He also refused to give the PIN for the phone to police and wiped it to factory reset.

Judge Pringle, who sentenced Brookton Lagan and Taison Cyrille to life imprisonment back in 2020, told him: “In the early hours of the morning on January 9, 2020 at Mendip Heights a murder took place where a man called Darren MacCormick was killed.

“Only a few hours after you received a message from those responsible for the murder. A message asking for help. You did all in your power to help the murderers to try and escape this country and evade justice.

“You drove your girlfriend's car to pick up bags for them. You were buying them tickets for the Eurostar and then flights. Fortunately the two of them were arrested.

“It’s difficult to imagine anything more serious than taking the life of another person. You had a misplaced sense of loyalty knowing these men were guilty of murder and you tried to help them escape. Fortunately they were arrested before boarding that plane.

“I have to take into account your age and I do so. You were only 19, just turned 19 the day before these events took place. You are now 22 and this case has taken a long time to get here.”

He jailed him for five years and five months for assisting an offender and four months in prison, to run consecutively, for using the mobile phone.