Football fan tried to stop Huntingdon train attack, jury hears

A football fan who tried to stop the man accused of trying to kill 10 people on a train said the attacker was "on a mission", a court heard.

Stephen Crean said he attempted to stop Anthony Williams from using a knife on a train, which had to make an unscheduled stop in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, on 1 November last year.

Cambridge Crown Court heard Crean describe his grapple with Williams as "like Come Dancing, we were all over the place", before he called 999 from a locked toilet.

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 already heard accounts from five people Williams is accused of attempting to murder, on the York to London King's Cross LNER service.

In a video recorded interview played to the court, Crean said he remembered choosing his carriage deliberately "because I knew it wasn't far from the buffet car" and he bought a meal deal for £6.

He said after finishing his drink and sandwich, there was a young girl who ran past him and said there was a "man with a knife, big knife and screamed".

Jurors have seen CCTV footage of the buffet car with other passengers inside, and heard Crean was on the "threshold" of the buffet car door and carriage.

"Then I heard the [carriage] doors open... and I knew the man was coming," he said.

Crean said that Williams said to him, "Do you want to die?", adding that he "pulled out a blade from nowhere", describing it as "quite a big kitchen knife, I'll never forget it".

He said people were "struggling to get the buffet door shut", but when he "heard it click, happy days, then I went towards him [Williams]".

Crean, who was wearing Nottingham Forest clothing, said he went "to stop him, stop him from using that knife, that was the whole point of it", before he grappled with Williams.

He said his fingers were cut and Williams was "twisting and turning" the knife.

He then said he "went down, my phone went flying", before Williams said "get your phone".

Crean said afterwards he locked himself in a toilet, adding: "I smiled, then middle-fingered him, then closed the door."

He then called 999 "probably for the first time in my life", and only came out when he heard the police walkie-talkies.

Asked about how Williams appeared, Crean said: "100% he was fine, he looked normal, he was just on a mission, he didn't seem angry."

Williams is also accused of attempting to murder Raza Aslam, Sachin Balakrishnan, Scott Bletcher, Kevin Deely, Scott Green, Jonathan Gjoshe, Michael Paffett, David Presland 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.

The trial continues.

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