Ten teenagers, the youngest of whom is 14, have been charged with a series of offences in connection with a serious assault on the German exchange student Daniel Ezzedine in Canterbury in June.
All 10 were charged on Tuesday with grievous bodily harm with intent and violent disorder.
Officers were called to Rose Lane in Canterbury during the evening of 6 June following reports that a teenage boy had been assaulted. Daniel, who was 17 and a student at Katholische Hauptschule Stadtmitte in Germany at the time of the exchange, was airlifted to a London hospital for emergency surgery on severe head injuries.
Only one of the accused was old enough to be legally named – George Potter, 18, of Margate. Of the others, eight are male and one is female.
They include a 17-year-old boy from Canterbury who was also charged with possession of cannabis; a 16-year-old boy from Orpington; a 16-year-old boy from Canterbury who was also charged with theft of a screwdriver and Stanley knife from a shop, and possession of an offensive weapon in a public place; a 17-year-old boy from Canterbury; a 16-year-old girl from Canterbury; a 17-year-old boy from Canterbury; a 15-year-old boy from Birchington-on-Sea; a 14-year-old boy from Canterbury; and a 17-year-old boy from Orpington.
All 10 were charged following an investigation by the Kent and Essex serious crime directorate into the serious assault in Canterbury city centre.
Daniel’s older brother, Bassam, 22, told the German TV channel RTL of the family’s shock and devastation over the incident. He said the attack had taken a huge toll on the family and had devastated their mother “emotionally and psychologically”. A crowdfunding effort has so far raised £16,012 for Daniel and his family.
All of the 10 people charged have been bailed to appear at Margate magistrates court on 16 January 2020.
A 44-year old man who was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender has been released without charge.
