WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: Anthony Williams, 33, denies attempting to murder Isaiah Idris, then aged 17, in a DLR stabbing in London in the early hours of November 1 last year, Cambridge Crown Court hears
A man accused of stabbing a teenage boy on a DLR train in London seemingly thought his victim was the devil and was “seeing things that were not clear to the rest of us”, a court has been told.
Anthony Williams, 33, denies attempting to murder Isaiah Idris during the early hours of November 1 last year on a DLR service travelling towards Pontoon Dock station.
He also denies the attempted murders of three individuals in Peterborough on October 31, and of 10 passengers on a London-bound LNER train that was halted in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, on the evening of November 1.
Passenger Macarena Lopez, who was aboard the DLR train returning home following a Halloween dinner with friends, told police that a man on the service “started to be loud” and was “brandishing a knife”.
In a video-recorded interview shown to the jury at Cambridge Crown Court, she described how the man seemed to be “specifically targeting a boy who seemed to me like a teenager, maybe 18 or so, maybe a bit younger, who was with a girl next to him”.
She recalled the man “fixated on the boy and started saying: ‘You are the devil’, or: ‘You are the demon.'”.
Ms Lopez suggested the man might be experiencing a “psychotic episode” and “was seeing things that were not clear to the rest of us”. She stated: “The attacker for some reason he thought this boy was the devil and wanted to harm him.”
The court has previously heard Williams cut Mr Idris, then aged 17 and now 18, on the face and on his hand as he attempted to shield himself from his attacker.
Ms Lopez went on to say: “I remember hyperventilating a lot and really hoping he didn’t do any more harm as it was so unpredictable, it was so senseless, there was no story to it.”
She recalled that a “middle-aged man next to the boy started confronting the attacker”. When the train got into Pontoon Dock station the doors opened.
“It’s almost like by magic his brain just switched off, that psychotic mind just calmed down as he just left the station as soon as he could,” Ms Lopez said.
Earlier, Judge Mr Justice Calver had directed jurors at Cambridge Crown Court that while Williams’ involvement in the attacks is not disputed, they must deliberate over whether he had the intention to kill his victims at the time of the assaults.
In a video interview shown to jurors earlier in the proceedings, Mr Idris told police that he recalled Williams, a stranger to him, saying: “Are you beefing with the devil?”.
The trial continues.
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