Man accused of UK train attack charged with 11 counts of attempted murder
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The train attack on the evening of Nov 1 - which police said was not being treated as terrorism - left 11 people injured.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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- Anthony Williams, 32, faces 11 attempted murder charges, including one for a station incident, after a mass train stabbing injured 11.
- Police investigate possible links to prior stabbings in Peterborough, including one involving a 14-year-old and a barber shop incident.
- A train crew member remains critical but stable; footballer Jonathan Gjoshe was injured; terrorism ruled out; suspect in custody until December 1.
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LONDON - A British man accused of carrying out a mass stabbing on board a train on Nov 1 was charged on Nov 3 with 11 counts of attempted murder, including over a separate incident earlier the same day at a train station in east London.
Police said they were also investigating whether there were any links between those incidents and a stabbing in the suspect’s hometown of Peterborough the previous night, as well as two other incidents there.
Eleven people were injured in the mass stabbing
Anthony Williams, 32, appeared at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on Nov 3 and was remanded in custody until his next court hearing on Dec 1.
Prosecutors charged him with 11 counts of attempted murder, one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of possession of a bladed article.
Ten of the attempted murder charges were linked to the train attack, British Transport Police said, while the eleventh was connected to the incident at the London station.
Police have ruled out terrorism and said the suspect acted alone. They said they were investigating whether other incidents involving a man with a knife in Peterborough, a city on the train’s route about 160km north of London, were linked.
“British Transport Police retain primacy for the overall investigation, which will include these three incidents,” Cambridgeshire Police said in a statement.
Officers attended the stabbing of a 14-year-old, who sustained minor injuries, in Peterborough on the night of Oct 31, but could not locate the offender, they said. A man also appeared with a knife at a barber’s shop in the south of the city on the night of Oct 31, and police were called to the same place on the morning of Nov 1.
Scunthorpe United, an English fifth-tier soccer team, said their player Jonathan Gjoshe was one of the victims of the attack and he remained in hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Transport minister Heidi Alexander said on Nov 3 the suspect was not known to security services.
She declined to comment on whether he was known to mental health services.
Five of the injured had been discharged from hospital by late on Nov 2. REUTERS
