Moment hero Nottingham Forest fan fights off Huntingdon train knifeman as fleeing passengers hide in kitchen

CCTV caught the moment that a hero Nottingham Forest fan tried to fight off the Huntingdon train knifeman, as terrified passengers hid together in the kitchen. 

Football fan Stephen Crean bravely stepped in when events rapidly unfolded on the London-bound LNER service on November 1 last year. 

Cambridge Crown Court were shown footage, captured on the train's CCTV, of passengers fleeing from Anthony Williams, 33, who allegedly stabbed 10 people on board the train when it had just left Peterborough. 

Jurors also saw the moment Mr Crean dramatically tussled with the knifeman, protecting the crowd huddled in the train's kitchen behind him. 

In the video, passengers are seen fleeing down the the train's narrow corridors before finding refuge in the buffet carriage's kitchen. 

They are seen huddling together in the crowded space, quickly managing to close the metal door as Williams emerges round the corner and appears in the doorway. 

Train CCTV caught the moment Stephen Crean (pictured in beige jeans) leapt out at the knifeman to stop him entering the buffet car's kitchen, where other passengers were hiding

The pair tousled as Mr Crean attempted to get the knife off Williams, who was pinned in the corner

Nottingham Forest fan Stephen Crean (pictured two days after the attack last year) was left with multiple injuries after the incident on November 1 last year 

At that moment, Mr Crean, who is seen standing by the door of the buffet car, jumps out at Williams and bravely tries to wrestle the large blade off him. 

He manages to pin Williams in the corner and push him away. The knifeman is then seen skulking in the carriage corridor, kicking Mr Crean's cap and phone left strewn on the floor. 

The jury previously heard Mr Crean's police interview video, in which he recalled it beginning when a girl ran past him screaming, saying 'man with a knife, big knife'. 

In the footage, Mr Crean said he tried to stop knifeman Anthony Williams from getting to a buffet car where there were more people on the evening of November 1 last year. 

'I went towards him away from that buffet car then all of a sudden he looked at me and said to me, as I will never forget, he said ''do you want to die?' and he pulled out a blade from nowhere,' he said.

He said people fleeing Williams were 'struggling to get the buffet door shut', and when he heard it click shut, he moved towards Williams.

Williams was then seen skulking down the corridor, kicking away Mr Crean's cap and phone 

Footage also showed Williams being confronted by staff and passengers using saucepans and kitchen equipment to defend themselves 

Pictured: passengers hiding in the kitchen section of the buffet carriage as the knifeman waited outside 

Mr Crean, who had his left hand bandaged in his interview video, said he 'went for that knife'.

He said Williams had been 'on a mission', before events became 'like Come Dancing, it was all over the place'. 

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

'We had a bit of a tussle,' Mr Crean said, adding that he 'went down, my phone went flying'. 

He said he later went into a toilet and locked the door, adding: 'I smiled, then middle-fingered him and closed the door.'

He said he had 'wanted to sort him out to try and stop him because I knew he wanted to get in that buffet car'. 

He said he then dialled 999 and police told him they were on their way.

Mr Crean said Williams 'never gave the game away' and 'didn't say why this or that'.

Anthony Williams (pictured) denies attempting to murder 10 people on the London-bound service that was stopped in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, on November 1 last year

Anthony Williams pictured with a knife on board an LNER service from Doncaster to London in November last year

'I became like a barricade to him and that's it,' he added.

Describing the moment he decided to advance on Williams, Mr Crean said of the buffet car door: 'I heard it click, happy days, I went towards him (Williams).' 

He said it 'probably shocked him (Williams) that I've gone for him first'.

He said his intention had been 'to stop him, stop him from using that knife, that was the whole point of it'.

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

Jurors also heard evidence from the police interview of passenger Raza Aslam, who described another hero on board the train that night - Samir Zitouni, a member of staff. 

Mr Aslam said that Mr Zitouni was 'cut up like he's been fighting with Wolverine' after trying to fend off the knifeman. 

He said that not long after the LNER train left Peterborough, 'someone just burst through the back door' of the carriage he was in and said 'everybody run'.

Police on the platform by the LNER train at Huntingdon station in Cambridgeshire on November 1, 2025

Williams captured during his arrest on November 1 in relation to the alleged stabbing on board the train

Williams pictured on CCTV footage from the LNER train, which has been shown to the court

Mr Aslam said somebody said 'there's a guy stabbing everyone', and 'I looked and there was so many different people of all backgrounds, they were terrified'.

He said people were trying to push along the train and he helped a mother and child, who locked themselves in a toilet.

He said he 'couldn't live with the fact I was hiding in the toilet and something was happening outside', so stayed outside in the carriage and was given a frying pan from a canteen area.

A man he called 'Sam', train staff member Samir Zitouni, 'was rushing backwards and forwards like a busy beaver trying to get different things' like trolleys and pans, Mr Aslam said.

He said that when Williams appeared 'I remember him looking at me and seeing if I was hiding something behind my back'.

Mr Aslam said he 'didn't anticipate that he was strategically minded' and 'before I even knew it I feel the knife stabbing – I couldn't believe it was that fast'.

He described it as a 'surgical strike' and that Williams was 'not out of breath, he's got no sweat on his brow'.

'He's the most calmest person I've ever met,' he said.

He said he remembered 'Sam and that other guy started chucking stuff' and said 'all hell's broken loose'.

He added that 'my heart wouldn't let me leave Sam because he saved me'.

He said the men were 'chucking everything at him (Williams)' and he believed they even threw a woman's zimmer frame at him.

Mr Aslam described Williams as having the 'greatest delight on his face – I saw his eyes expand with pleasure'. 

'If he had wanted he could have stabbed all of us in the back afterwards, he had plenty of opportunity and he didn't,' he said.

He said in interview: 'Is this man possessed or something? He wasn't out of breath, he was calm.'

'He just walk up casually, stand at the door and said 'who is man enough to take me on?,' said Mr Aslam.

Another passenger stabbed by Williams, Michael Paffett, said in a video-recorded interview that people knocked a catering trolley onto its side to 'act like a barrier' and a man 'lobbed a full-size toaster at the guy'. 

Jurors were played mobile phone footage taken by a passenger on the train, before Williams reached their carriage, in which a person says 'I don't think he's going to come and stab everybody but who knows'.

In the video, someone asks: 'Is he coming this way?'

In CCTV from the train, Williams is seen swigging from a bottle and walking along a carriage with a knife in his hand.

In a second mobile phone clip, where the screen is black, audio is heard of a man saying 'I've been stabbed – I'm bleeding heavily' and there is a shout of 'oh my God'.

Williams denies attempting to murder ten people on the London-bound service that was stopped in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, on November 1 last year.

He also denies the attempted murders of three people in Peterborough on October 31 and of a 17-year-old boy at Pontoon Dock DLR station in London in the early hours of November 1.

Jurors have been told there is no dispute that Williams perpetrated the attack on the LNER train, but they will be asked to decide whether he intended to kill his victims.