Passengers on an LNER train initially thought a warning from a stabbing victim was a joke, Cambridge Crown Court has heard. Jonathan Gjoshe, the first person attacked, said he ran through the carriage shouting, “I’ve been stabbed, run”, but some people remained seated.
Gjoshe told police he was using his phone in carriage J and at first thought Anthony Williams was someone he knew. He said the stabbing felt slow, then he felt a shock and jumped over a table. His arm was drenched in blood, he told the court, describing the scene as horrific.
Gjoshe spent four days in hospital and later asked staff, “Am I going to die today?” He also told police that his attacker showed no emotion and appeared to have been drinking.
The court heard accounts from other passengers who were stabbed during the incident. Sachin Balakrishnan said he heard screaming and saw people scrambling over seats before a man carrying a large knife ran after him. He felt pain in his right arm and initially thought his wet top might be from a spilled drink.
David Presland, 73, said he was on his hands and knees when he was stabbed. He told the court he thought he would die and was lucky to survive. Another passenger, identified as Kevin, came to help him.
Williams, 33, is accused of stabbing 10 people on the York-to-London King’s Cross service after it left Peterborough. The train made an unscheduled stop in Huntingdon on 1 November last year. He denies 10 counts of attempted murder relating to the train attack and four further alleged attempted murders in Peterborough and London.
Prosecutors allege that Williams tried to kill three people in Peterborough on 31 October and a teenager on a DLR train in east London in the early hours of 1 November. The court has been told that whether he carried out the attacks is not disputed; jurors must decide whether he intended to kill. The trial continues.
Sources: BBC News UK.