14-Year-Old Boy Stabbed While Trick-or-Treating, Court Hears

A 14-year-old boy stabbed by a man who later carried out a mass stabbing on a train told a court that his attacker stared at him with his “eyes wide open” while shouting, “Are you involved, are you involved?”

The teenager was out trick-or-treating with a friend when Anthony Williams “just pulled out a knife and stabbed me”.

The frightened pair fled and hid in bushes, where they stayed until police arrived after they called 999.

The attack took place on a footbridge over the River Nene in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire. It was the first of 14 assaults allegedly carried out by Williams during a Halloween weekend rampage that culminated in ten attacks aboard a train.

Cambridge Crown Court has heard that Williams admits 12 charges of wounding with intent and two charges of attempted wounding with intent, but denies 14 counts of attempted murder.

In a police interview, the boy said he had been with his friend on the evening of October 31 last year when “some random guy I’d literally never seen in my life just pulls out a knife and stabs me”.

The teenager said Williams pulled the ten-inch black knife from his waistband. He added: “He was screaming something. My friend said it was something like ‘Are you involved, are you involved?’ or something.

“His eyes were wide open, like he was on something. I don’t think he was well.

“We just ran away. Because I had so much adrenaline, I only thought someone had poked me in the chest.

“We ran into some bushes. My friend was saying, ‘Call the police, call the police’. I was saying, ‘I think I’ve been stabbed.’”

The boy told the interviewing officer that the blow to his chest had been delivered with considerable force. “It pushed me back a bit. He was using his full force,” he said.

Jurors have also heard about the terror—and acts of extraordinary bravery—the following day, when Williams allegedly moved through a series of carriages on an LNER service from Doncaster to London, attacking passengers with a knife and leaving some with serious injuries.

Several passengers and a member of staff tried to confront Williams during what prosecutors described as a “storm of violence”.

Train worker Samir Zitouni attempted to halt him by creating a “defensive blockade” with objects including a frying pan and a toaster.

He then gathered a group of “big, strong men” before confronting Williams with the pan. Zitouni was subjected to an attack described in court as “prolonged, persistent and brutal”.

Footage shown in court after the train came to a stop showed Zitouni staggering along the platform in a blood-soaked shirt. He then collapsed against a carriage before falling onto the tracks.

His multiple injuries included partially collapsed lungs and damage to his spleen.

Football fan Stephen Crean bravely ‘whispered to those in the café bar to shut the door and went towards the defendant’ despite being unarmed, the court was told.

Williams – who asked him ‘do you want to die?’ – stabbed him several times in the head, upper and lower back, fingers and hip during the ‘one-sided’ attack.

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Some on board the train spoke of the defendant rambling on about the ‘devil’ and ‘power’ and warning: ‘Everyone’s gonna die today.’

Car delivery driver Raza Aslam described how he heard the defendant had ‘the greatest delight on his face, I saw his eyes expand with pleasure’.

The Halloween mayhem began with the stabbing of the 14-year-old boy, who can’t be named for legal reasons, on the evening of October 31 last year.

Two men – Dawid Taborski and William Ogelby – were attacked nearby minutes later, although they avoided injury.

A 17-year-old was next stabbed in the face while travelling on the Docklands Light Railway in east London at Pontoon Dock in the early hours of November 1.

Williams then boarded the LNER train in his home town of Peterborough at 7.26pm that evening, clutching a ‘large kitchen knife and a bottle of fortified tonic wine’ before starting the mass stabbing.

Describing passengers’ responses when the attack began, Mr Paxton said: ‘In sheer terror, the train passengers ran for their lives, hiding away in locked toilets, store cabinets, or under seats until many fleeing the defendant literally ran out of train.

‘Trapped and facing the defendant, who had been wielding, slashing out and stabbing with his knife, some sought to defend themselves and others on the train, showing extraordinary bravery in the face of the defendant’s onslaught, picking up frying pans or toasters to keep the defendant back, even trying to de-escalate the situation by asking him why was he doing it and telling him that they loved him.

‘But to no avail, the defendant continued his knife attack – slashing out and stabbing those around him.’

Horrifying footage played in court showed dozens of passengers wrapped in coats and hats fleeing down carriages as Williams approached them.

The bloody onslaught ended when the ‘quick thinking’ train driver hurriedly arranged an unscheduled stop at Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire.

The defendant, who is appearing in court via videolink from Rampton Hospital in Nottinghamshire, was seen in bodycam footage being arrested by armed police who disabled him with a taser.

He was checked at hospital before being taken to a police station in Cambridge, although he was deemed not fit to be interviewed by officers.

While in custody, he punched a PC on the nose – leading to a charge of causing actual bodily harm, which the court heard he has admitted.

Prosecutor Chris Paxton KC told the jury that the defendant has ‘some mental health issues which may or may not become relevant during this trial’.

But one train passenger, Michael Paffett, who suffered a deep wound to his face, described how Williams ordered him to stay in a carriage after attacking him, saying: ‘I don’t want you behind me.’

The prosecution say this showed that he was ‘functioning, responding and reactive to those around him’.

Mr Paxton added: ‘There is no issue in this case as to who is responsible for these attacks. The defendant accepts he carried out these attacks.

‘The issue in this case, so far as the attempted murder counts are concerned, relates primarily to the defendant’s intention – whether he had an intention to kill as we, the prosecution, say he had.’

The trial continues.