Huntingdon train attack passengers though stabbing was a 'joke'
Some train passengers initially remained sitting down and thought a man was joking after he told people “I’ve been stabbed, run”, a court has heard.
Anthony Williams stabbed 10 people on the train which made an unscheduled stop in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, on 1 November last year.
Cambridge Crown Court heard the first person who was stabbed, Jonathan Gjoshe, later asked hospital staff “am I going to die today?”.
Williams, 33, of Langford Road in Peterborough, denies 10 counts of attempted murder, and four other alleged attempted murders in earlier incidents in Peterborough and London.
Jurors have seen CCTV footage of Williams’ attack, which took place on the York to London King’s Cross LNER service, after it had left Peterborough.
The court was played a video interview with Gjoshe, who said he was on his phone in carriage J at the time and initially thought Williams was someone he knew.
“I’ve made eye contact with him… he’s pulled a knife, but I just think it was the way he’s poked me, the way he’s stabbed me, it was a bit weird because it was slow.”
Gjoshe said that once he felt a shock “that’s when the adrenalin kicked in” and he jumped over the train table.
He said his whole arm was “drenched with blood” and went through the carriage telling people “I’ve been stabbed, run”, but said some other people on the train remained “sitting down, thinking it was a joke”.
“It was like a movie, it was quite horrific.”
He spent four days in hospital and asked staff “am I going to die today or not? please tell me this”.
Gjoshe told police he felt the attacker “definitely had a few drinks before” and had a “pure straight face”, showing no emotion as he stabbed him.
Follow all the developments from the trial as they unfold on our BBC podcast In Court
Jurors then watched a video interview with another stabbing victim, Sachin Balakrishnan, who was a passenger in the same carriage.
He said he heard “screaming”, then “people trying to jump over the seats” and running, then a man with a “big knife” who “was saying something but nothing meaningful”.
Balakrishnan said he “ran and ran and ran”, adding: “This guy was running behind me, there was nowhere to go. Nowhere was safe.”
He said “everyone was running for their lives” and then he felt pain in his right arm.
“I thought I was alright, but I could feel my top getting wet. I thought it might have been my drink,” he recalled.
Anthony Williams is accused of attempting to murder 10 people on the train that made an unscheduled stop at Huntingdon
Williams is also accused of attempting to murder David Presland, Raza Aslam, Scott Bletcher, Stephen Crean, Kevin Deely, Scott Green, Michael Paffett, and Samir Zitouni on the London-bound train between Peterborough and Huntingdon on 1 November.
Prosecutors further allege that on 31 October, Williams tried to kill three people in Peterborough, before attempting to murder a teenager in the early hours of 1 November on a DLR train in east London.
Whether Williams carried out the attacks is not in question – the court has been told – but jurors must consider whether he intended to kill.
Additional reporting by the Press Association.
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