Heroic passenger recalls chilling comment attacker made before stabbing him six times in train attack
A heroic passenger on board the train travelling from Doncaster to London which came under a knife attack has spoken out about what he experienced when confronted by the suspect.
Nottingham Forest fan Stephen Creen was one of the passengers on the 18:25 London North Eastern Railway (LNER) service bound for King's Cross on Saturday 1 November, on which 11 people were left hospitalised after a stabbing.
Nine were initially said to be suffering life-threatening injuries, with police boarding the train as it made an emergency stop in Huntingdon, to taser the man holding a knife.
While two men were arrested at first, one was released, with a 32-year-old man named Anthony Williams, from Peterborough, confirmed to be the suspect of the mass stabbing.
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Today, he was charged with 10 counts of attempted murder, one count of actual bodily harm and one count of possession of a bladed article in relation to the case, according to British Transport Police.
Authorities are currently investigating three separate incidents before the stabbing, one of which Williams has been charged for, with another count of attempted murder in relation to Isaiah Ishmael Idris suffering facial injuries after being attacked with a knife on a DLR train at Pontoon Dock in East London at 12.46am on Saturday.
Those onboard the fateful LNER service have since been commended for their actions though, with one rail worker receiving praise for standing up to the perpetrator in reviewed CCTV footage.
But Creen was just another passenger, as he recalled the knifeman asking him: "Do you want to die?"
The 61-year-old would subsequently be stabbed six times, as he confronted the attacker with nothing but his clenched fists, saying that it didn't 'dawn on me not to' try and stop it all from unfolding.
He recalled to The Telegraph: “It was me with him, he had a great big oversized kitchen knife - it was as if it was a Japanese sword or something. He came towards me and said to me, ‘Do you want to die?’. That’s what he said.”
The football fan was on his way back to his London home after watching Nottingham Forest draw 2-2 with Manchester United at the City Ground, when chaos ensued on the train service past half-past seven.
“All of a sudden the door of the carriage opened, people ran past me and they were shouting, ‘run, run, run, man’s got knife’,” he recalled, adding: “So I let these people run past me, families, women, young lads.
"Finally they had all packed into the buffet car and the toilets and locked the doors, as you do, and so that was it for me.”
He said that other passengers were hiding in the buffet car, as the door was locked while Creen fought with the knifeman, saying: “I could see somebody on the floor behind him with what looked like blood on them.
“He got nearer and nearer to me, so I went a little bit further back. He came up, he came up. And by that point I was back at the buffet car but they were making sure that door was locked. I heard it click and that’s when it kicked off.”
“All of a sudden, this knife comes out, and I went straight for him. I tried to punch him, this and that. I was trying to hold his arm [with his knife]. It kicked off. But he caught me on the top of the head,” Creen said.
The passenger was stabbed in his left hand, three times in his back, once on his bottom and twice in his head in the scuffle, recalling attempts to hold him and the knife away, though it 'caught' him a few times, causing him to 'bleed a lot'.
Creen found an empty toilet, locking the door as he continued to lose blood while on the floor, before armed police officers opened the door 10 minutes later, when the train made an emergency stop in Huntingdon.
Speaking about his actions, Creen said: “My motive was to protect people. I think it’s just in my blood. I will always do that. I was scared, but then it went away. You just do whatever. You just go with it.”
He is now taking medication to protect against possible HIV infection as the same knife was used on multiple victims.
Creen downplayed any suggestions of being brave, but admitted: "One woman messaged me on Facebook and said, ‘You probably saved my daughter’s life’. And I just got that message earlier on, and I never get emotional, but that got to me."
Joshua Nair