Anthony Williams, 33, has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of attempted murder after a mass stabbing on a London-bound LNER train in Cambridgeshire — an attack that forced staff to make an emergency stop in Huntingdon.
At a plea hearing at Cambridge Crown Court on Thursday, Williams also denied assault occasioning actual bodily harm over an alleged attack on a male police officer while in custody. The charges stem from a series of violent incidents on 31 October and 1 November, all linked by prosecutors into an indictment totalling 21 counts.
“Anthony Williams denies 10 attempted murder charges over a train stabbing that forced an emergency stop in Huntingdon.”
Several people were seriously injured on the train after it left Peterborough, including a 14-year-old boy and a 22-year-old man, whose attempted murders Williams denies. He also faces a charge of attempted wounding of a 28-year-old man in Peterborough on the same day. Separately, Williams is charged with affray at a barber shop in Peterborough on 31 October, and the theft of a pack of knives from an Asda store in Stevenage.
The following day, he allegedly assaulted a man on a King's Cross to Peterborough train, and is charged with possessing a bladed article in a public place at a footbridge near Henry Penn Walk, the Rail World car park and Queen’s Walk in Peterborough. In a separate incident, Williams was charged with one count of attempted murder and possession of a bladed article over an attack at Pontoon Dock DLR station in London in the early hours of 1 November, where a victim suffered facial injuries. That station was closed for a couple of days while evidence was gathered.
Williams, who told Peterborough Magistrates' Court he is of no fixed abode, had been due to stand trial from 22 June at Cambridge Crown Court, but the date was pushed back to 26 October during a hearing in April, as further reports are awaited.