Birmingham nightclub where Cody Fisher was murdered has its licence suspended
23 year old Cody Fisher was stabbed to death on the dance floor at Crane in Digbeth on Boxing Day
Last updated 30th Dec 2022
Licensing bosses at Birmingham City Council have suspended the licence of the nightclub where a 23 year-old young footballer died while out celebrating on Boxing Day.
West Midlands Police made an application for an urgent review of Crane's licence - held by Digital Arts Media Ltd - after describing the scene on 26th December at the venue as 'chaos'.
Duncan Craig, representing the license holder said the application would not be opposed.
After a request by Detective Inspector Chris Jones from West Midlands Police, the public hearing was made private to discuss the details of the application, in order to not influence the ongoing murder investigation in the death of Mr. Fisher.
Following that meeting the sub-committee suspended the licence pending a full review.
In its certificate to Birmingham City council, when making the application, West Midlands Police said Mr Fisher died during "a fight on the dance floor" and officers who attended "described a scene of chaos and evidence of drug use within the premises".
One sergeant's account said the club's security guards asked officers to help them with crowd control following the stabbing, while other "oblivious" staff members were "wandering around all over the place" and began cleaning up the crime scene.
"They have started to clean the dancefloor further down from where the deceased was; officers shouted at them to stop," the sergeant said.
"While officers are doing CPR, you can see people are just wandering around in the scene freely. As soon as we had more officers on the scene they were removed and the whole dancefloor was cordoned off and the area was made sterile...
"There were hundreds of small drugs bags and nitrous oxide canisters all over the dance floor. These include the small and the very large nitrous oxide canisters with balloons."
Representatives for the licence holder said it would use the 28 days to "reflect and assist the police with the criminal investigation".
Duncan Craig, representing Crane nightclub's licence-holder, Digital Arts Media Ltd, said that the company would not oppose a temporary suspension of its licence while the police investigated the "horrific crime".
"I am aware that they will be asking for a suspension to the licence today and, in the circumstances, I have no instructions to oppose that," he said.
"It won't be opposed. It seems wholly appropriate that we then have a 28-day period to reflect on what's happened and to assist West Midlands Police with their inquiries into this horrific crime."
He added: "There are one or two issues that my client takes with some of the matters that were asserted in the review application.
"And it's hoped that that 28-day period will also provide an opportunity to develop a better understanding of what happened on that dreadful night.
"I just thought at this stage it was appropriate, because it may assist your deliberations, (to say) that the application for suspension of the licence will not be opposed by the licence-holder."
Mr Fisher's football club, Stratford Town FC, said that it had postponed its forthcoming match against Bromsgrove Sporting FC.
On its website the Southern League posted a statement saying:
'Following a request from Stratford Town to the League for the postponement of the scheduled match on Bank Holiday Monday, the League's Board considered this request along with the observations of Bromsgrove Sporting.
'The cruel and savage events of Boxing Day that resulted in the fatal stabbing of Stratford Town's Cody Fisher has brought hurt and pain to so many. Stratford Town advising the League that players, management, staff and supporters are struggling to overcome the incident and request time to seek professional help for those that need it and as such, as a Club, are in no fit state to fulfil the fixture.
The League and its Board sends its best wishes to all those affected, hoping that the pain begins to heal.'
As of today (Friday) seven people have been arrested in the investigation into Mr. Fisher's murder, three on suspicion of his murder and four others on suspicion of assisting an offender.