Huntingdon train attack trial begins after Royal Navy veteran enabled man's arrest
Several people were attacked in the train incident.
A knifeman asked a train passenger “do you want to die?” as he stabbed 10 people on a London-bound train, a court has heard.
Jurors at Cambridge Crown Court were played a CCTV clip of passenger Stephen Crean trying to wrestle a knife from Anthony Williams on an LNER train on November 1 last year.
Prosecutor Christopher Paxton KC told the court that Williams “brought terror” to the Doncaster to London service, stabbing 10 people during a “rampage”.
He said: “Mr Crean will tell you that the defendant told him, and I quote, ‘Do you want to die?’.
“We say, clear evidence of the defendant’s intention to kill, as was the use of the knife to stab so many, and use to stab and cut Mr Crean in his hand, head and lower back.”
Williams had stabbed four people in the 24 hours before the train attack, and admits having intended to harm them but denies 14 counts of attempted murder.
Opening the prosecution case on Wednesday, Mr Paxton told jurors that Williams posed “a dangerous threat” to those he encountered on Friday October 31 and the following day.
He attacked three people in Peterborough on the evening of October 31, stabbing a 14-year-old boy when he walked past him on a footbridge near Henry Penn Walk, Peterborough, before lunging with his knife at Dawid Taborski, the court heard.
Williams then attempted to stab William Ogelby four times in the chest in the Rail World car park, jurors were told.
He later travelled to London where in the early hours of the following day he approached a 17-year-old boy, Isaiah Idris, on the Docklands Light Railway at Pontoon Dock in London, and knifed him in the face and hand, the court was told.
Later on the Saturday evening, he stabbed 10 people on the train in a five-minute attack.
Some fled “in sheer terror”, locking themselves in toilets, while others tried to de-escalate the attack, the court heard.
One of those who jumped in to help was Royal Navy veteran Andrew Johnson, who moved his train to the slow track after learning of the ongoing attack. His quick thinking allowed for an unscheduled stop at Huntingdon Railway Station, where armed police stormed the train and arrested a suspect.
Mr Johnson, a former Chief Petty Officer during his Royal Navy career, served on board the likes of HMS Newcastle, HMS Sandown and other minehunters. He was based in Portsmouth for most of his career before moving to Peterborough in 2004 when he left the navy, and became a train driver in 2006.
(Proceeding)