A man accused of stabbing a teenager on a London train appeared to believe his victim was the devil and was “seeing things that were not clear to the rest of us”, a court has heard.
Anthony Williams, 33, denies attempting to murder Isaiah Idris in the early hours of November 1, 2025, on a DLR train heading to Pontoon Dock station. He also denies the attempted murders of three people in Peterborough on October 31, 2025, and of 10 people on a London-bound LNER train that was stopped in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, on the evening of November 1.
Witness describes attack on teenager
Witness Macarena Lopez, who was on the DLR train travelling home from a Halloween dinner with friends, told police that a man on the train “started to be loud” and was “brandishing a knife”. In a video-recorded interview played to jurors at Cambridge Crown Court, she said the man appeared to be “specifically targeting a boy who seemed to me like a teenager, maybe 18 or so, maybe a bit younger, who was with a girl next to him”.
She said the man “fixated on the boy and started saying: ‘You are the devil’, or: ‘You are the demon.’” Ms Lopez said she thought the man may be having a “psychotic episode” and “was seeing things that were not clear to the rest of us”.
“The attacker for some reason he thought this boy was the devil and wanted to harm him,” she said.
Court hears of victim's injuries and incident on train
The court previously heard Williams cut Mr Idris, then aged 17 and now 18, on the face and on his hand as he tried to block his attacker. Ms Lopez continued: “I remember hyperventilating a lot and really hoping he didn’t do any more harm as it was so unpredictable, it was so senseless, there was no story to it.”
She said that a “middle-aged man next to the boy started confronting the attacker”. When the train got into Pontoon Dock station the doors opened. “It’s almost like by magic his brain just switched off, that psychotic mind just calmed down as he just left the station as soon as he could,” Ms Lopez said.
Judge Mr Justice Calver earlier told jurors at Cambridge Crown Court that whether Williams carried out the attacks is not in question but they must consider whether he intended to kill those individuals when he carried out the attacks. Mr Idris told police, in a video interview played to jurors earlier in the trial, that he remembered Williams, who he did not know, saying: “Are you beefing with the devil?”
Separate incident on train to Peterborough
Jurors were told about an incident when a man, agreed by the prosecution and defence to be Williams, spat at a passenger on a train as it travelled towards Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, on November 1 last year. Jordan Morley, who had finished a shift as a police detention officer in Islington, north London, at 6.40am, was travelling on a service from King’s Cross-St Pancras.
In a statement read to the court, Mr Morley said he was on the 7.16am service to Peterborough and after the train stopped at Hitchin a man walked from the rear of the train towards him. “As he was walking past me I felt what I would describe as a spray of spittle land on the left-hand side of my face,” he said.
He added that he saw Williams staring at him and his “lips moved as if he was saying something but I didn’t hear anything as I had my earphones in”. Mr Morley said he did not say anything and was “almost in disbelief this male randomly spat at me”. He said he saw Williams had sat down three or four rows ahead, and Mr Morley walked away from him and left the train when it stopped at Biggleswade. He told the court he sent a text to British Transport Police and received a call. The trial continues.
