The key facts

  • The jury was shown CCTV: train crew member Samir Zitouni fought off Anthony Williams with a frying pan
  • Williams denies 14 counts of attempted murder, including attacks in Peterborough and London the day before
  • Zitouni suffered life-threatening injuries: both lungs were punctured, requiring four blood transfusions and a ventilator

CCTV footage shown in court

At Cambridge Crown Court, the jury has been shown CCTV footage in which a member of the crew of the Doncaster — King's Cross train, Samir Zitouni, holds back Anthony Williams with a frying pan — before the train made an unscheduled stop at Huntingdon station on 1 November last year. This is reported by BBC News, whose correspondent worked in court (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckdd8qpdeym4o). Prosecutor Christopher Paxton KC described Zitouni's actions as 'simply courage and bravery in seeking to save lives and protect others'.

The charges and the course of the attack

Williams, 33, of Langford Road in Peterborough, denies 14 counts of attempted murder. In addition to the attack on ten passengers on the train between Peterborough and Huntingdon, he is charged with incidents on 31 October: the attempted murder of a 14-year-old teenager and David Taborski on a footbridge near Henry Penn Walk in Peterborough, and then of William Ogilby in the car park of Railworld in the same city. According to the prosecutor, the entire attack on the train 'lasted roughly five minutes', the struggle was hand-to-hand, and the victims were 'literally fighting for their lives'. Paxton described the attack on Zitouni himself as 'sustained, persistent and brutal': according to the investigation, both of his lungs were punctured, and he required four blood transfusions, chest drainage and a ventilator. Despite his life-threatening condition, the prosecutor says, he told his attacker: 'We love you, we can help you.' According to Paxton, the CCTV footage shows Zitouni in a 'blood-soaked shirt' leaving the train among the last and falling into the gap between the train and the platform.

Testimony about the passengers

The court also heard about other victims. Sachin Balakrishnan suffered stab wounds to the forearm and chest with a punctured lung — the wound, in the prosecutor's wording, passed 'within centimetres of his heart'. Seventy-three-year-old David Presland was wounded in the back while on his knees and, in his words, received help from a man named Kevin — presumably Kevin Dilly, another of those Williams is accused of attempting to kill. Scott Green was travelling with his dog Poppy: when the attacker tried to stab him for the third time, the dog, according to Paxton, 'saved the situation and put the attacker to flight'; the court was also told that Williams had previously been bitten by a dog in an unrelated incident. The trial continues.

A CCTV image of Anthony Williams on a train. He is wearing a dark jacket and has his hood up.Image source, British Transport Police
Image caption,

The jury has been shown this image of Anthony Williams on a train

Emergency services personnel, wearing protective gear and many in high-visibility clothing, near an Azuma train. They are standing on the platform to the left of the train, which has its front lights on.Image source, Press Association
Image caption,

Anthony Williams is accused of attempting to murder 10 people on the train that made an unscheduled stop at Huntingdon

A man in dark clothing and black woolly hat carries a small black bag under his right arm. He is outside glass doors at a railway station and is walking past yellow cones that say 'CAUTION WET FLOOR' on them.Image source, British Transport Police
Image caption,

The jury has been shown this image of Anthony Williams at Peterborough railway station, where he boarded the train