Crane nightclub has licence revoked after footballer Cody Fisher stabbed to death

The Crane nightclub where footballer Cody Fisher died in a fatal stabbing on Boxing Day 2022 is to remain closed for good.

The club's licence was suspended for 28 days after an interim meeting in December, and Birmingham City Council's licensing committee has since met today to consider an application from the force to make the closure permanent.

The council also continued the existing suspension, first handed down on December 30 2022, meaning the club cannot reopen while any appeal against the decision by its operator and licence-holder Digital Arts Media Ltd is considered.

A knife alleged to have been used in the attack on the dance floor of the Adderley Street venue was found at the scene, according to a police report.

The report also described how responding officers found a "scene in chaos" and "evidence of drug use".

Security and club staff were also "oblivious" and "started to clean up the dancefloor" while CPR was still being performed on Mr Fisher.

In a verbal summary of police evidence to the committee, Gary Grant, a barrister representing the force, said the club's ongoing operation poses "terrifying risks" to patrons, and "grave" outcomes to public safety and the prevention of crime, inside the premises.

"That is why the police ask you to revoke the premises' licence," he added, saying the evidence justifies such action.

While a licence had been granted to the event-led venue in the summer, it had only been operating since October 2022 before ending up facing the most serious sanction, the committee was told.

In an assessment of what he said was an "inadequate search regime", Mr Grant added that not only was a knife brought inside the club, but also drugs and there was "blatant" use of illicit substances, leading to three people needing treatment for an "overdose of one drug or another".