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8 hours ago
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Police investigating the mass stabbing on a high-speed train in Cambridgeshire are examining four other knife incidents alleged to have taken place hours before passengers fled in terror on Saturday evening.
Questions mounted for police as Anthony Williams, 32, appeared in court on Monday on a series of attempted murder charges related to two stabbing incidents.
The investigation into the train stabbings has expanded to include three earlier incidents alleged to have involved knives in and around Peterborough on Friday evening and Saturday morning, as well as an incident in London early on Saturday.
Williams, from Peterborough, has been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder after the stabbings on a train travelling from Doncaster to London on Saturday evening.
He was also charged at Peterborough magistrates court with another count of attempted murder and possession of a bladed article in connection to an incident at Pontoon Dock station, which is on the Docklands Light Railway system, in east London on Saturday morning.
British Transport Police said they received a report of the attack at Pontoon Dock at 12.46am on Saturday and that a man received facial injuries from a knife. BTP said the suspect left the location and officers later identified Williams as a suspect. The force would not say when.
BTP’s investigation now includes three other incidents in Peterborough on Friday and Saturday morning. Cambridgeshire police said the first was the stabbing of a 14-year-old boy, who received minor injuries, by a man in Peterborough city centre.
A man was later seen with a knife at a barber’s in Fletton, Peterborough, at 7.25pm on Friday. That incident was reported at 9.10pm to police. The Cambridgeshire force said a crime was recorded but officers were not sent.
Police said that at 9.25am on Saturday officers were called to the same barber’s. They arrived 18 minutes later and could not find the suspect.
Cambridgeshire police said: “We are currently reviewing all incidents in the timeframe to understand whether there were any further potential offences.”
Details have emerged about the victims of the train attack. A Scunthorpe United footballer, Jonathan Gjoshe, was one of 11 people treated in hospital after the incident. Five remain in hospital including a train guard hailed as a hero for protecting passengers.
Williams was remanded in custody after his court hearing and Stuart Cundy, the deputy chief constable of BTP, said: “Our investigation is also looking at other possible linked offences.”
Williams is also charged with one count of actual bodily harm over an alleged attack on a police officer in a custody suite after the train incident.
On Monday the train’s driver, Andrew Johnson, who was praised for diverting the train to Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, where police were able to intervene, spoke for the first time.
He was driving the 6.25pm service from Doncaster to London when the violence broke out onboard. He contacted a signaller and the decision was taken to divert the train.
Johnson said: “As train drivers, we hold a lot of responsibility. We practise our emergency response and keep up to date with our knowledge of the route, so if needed, we know exactly where to stop and what to do.
“The action I took is the same as any other driver. I think my colleagues onboard were the real heroes and I’d like to pay tribute to their bravery.”
The government has ruled out routinely installing knife arches in rail stations, and in the House of Commons on Monday the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, praised the bravery of police, the emergency services, train staff and passengers.
“I would also like to pay tribute to the breathtaking bravery of those on the train itself, including the heroic acts of the passengers and train crew who intercepted the attacker,” Mahmood said. “I would like to draw particular attention to one member of the onboard crew, who ran towards danger, confronting the attacker for a sustained period of time, and stopped his advance through the train.
“He put himself in harm’s way, suffered grievous injuries as a result, and remains in hospital today, in a critical but stable condition. On Saturday he went to work to do his job. Today he is a hero, and for ever will be.”
She said police were first told of the train attacks at 7.42pm on Saturday and arrested a suspect within eight minutes. “Ten people were taken to hospital … eight of whom had life-threatening injuries, and a further individual later self-presented at the hospital.”
Mahmood added: “Since Saturday’s attack, the British Transport Police have increased their presence at key points in the transport network, though it should be noted their operational assessment of the risk posed on our trains has not changed as this was an isolated attack.
“I know that ideas have already been suggested about how policing should change in response to this event. Once the facts are known, we must examine what more might have been done to stop this horrific event from ever occurring, and whether there are measures that we must now take to better protect the public, on our streets and on our trains. However, that must be done when all the facts are available to us.”
