The man accused of stabbing 10 people on a train was "on a mission" during the attack, a football fan who intervened has told a court.
Stephen Crean, a Nottingham Forest fan, was on the London-bound LNER service when the incident occurred on November 1 last year. He testified in a police interview video played to jurors at Cambridge Crown Court.
Crean recounted seeing a girl run past him screaming about a "man with a knife." He attempted to prevent the assailant, identified as Anthony Williams, from reaching a buffet car where more passengers were present. "I went towards him away from that buffet car then all of a sudden he looked at me and said to me, as I will never forget, he said 'do you want to die?' and he pulled out a blade from nowhere," Crean told the court.
He described people fleeing Williams struggling to close the buffet car door. When the door shut, Crean moved towards Williams and "went for that knife." His left hand was bandaged in the interview video, and he stated his fingers were cut during a "tussle" with Williams, who was "twisting and turning" the blade.
Crean said he felt Williams "never gave the game away" and "didn't say why this or that." He described his intention as being "to stop him, stop him from using that knife, that was the whole point of it." Asked about Williams' demeanor, Crean stated, "100 percent he was fine, he looked normal, he was just on a mission, he didn't seem angry."
Williams denies attempting to murder 10 people on the LNER train, which was stopped in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. He also faces charges related to attempted murders in Peterborough and London on preceding days. The court has been told there is no dispute that Williams carried out the attack, but the jury must decide if he intended to kill his victims. The trial is ongoing.