Huntingdon train stabbing accused said ‘I am the baddest’, before knife attack court told

Huntingdon train stabbing accused said ‘I am the baddest’ before knife attack, court told Anthony Williams is alleged to have paced up and down a train saying "I am the baddest", the day before he is claimed to have stabbed 10 people on a LNER service A man who allegedly stabbed 10 people on a train told passengers “I am the baddest, no-one is as bad as me” on another service the day before, a court heard. Passenger Ethan Daniels described the behaviour of a man – agreed by the prosecution and defence to be Anthony Williams – as “erratic” in a statement read at Cambridge Crown Court on Monday. Mr Daniels, who was on a southbound service from Peterborough on the evening of October 31 last year, said Williams appeared to reach for a bag and “said ‘I’m going to do it’, but then threw the bag away saying ‘no, I can’t do it’”. He said he had heard “what I would describe as Halloween music” before he saw Williams “come from the front of the train, the music was coming from his mobile (phone)”. “He was erratic, he was dodgy,” Mr Daniels said, adding he was “in fear for my safety”. Williams, 33, denies attempting to murder 10 people on an LNER train that was stopped in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, the following evening, on November 1 last year. He also denies the attempted murders of three people in Peterborough on October 31, and of a 17-year-old boy at Pontoon Dock DLR station in London in the early hours of November 1. Another passenger, Abbie Harrison-Evans, said in a statement read to the court that Williams was “playing spooky Halloween music from his phone” and was “shouting ‘I am the baddest’.” She said her “first impression was he was suffering from a mental condition”. Ms Harrison-Evans said Williams had a black rucksack on the seat next to him and “kept grabbing it and saying ‘I’m going to do it’.” “It looked like he was reaching for something inside the black rucksack,” she said. He would say “I’m going to do it” then “not now, can’t do it now,” she continued. “His erratic and concerning behaviour made me feel scared,” she said, adding that she “thought he was going to hurt us”. Another passenger on the October 31 train service, Keirah Lee-Oakman, said Williams “appeared to be talking and mumbling to himself”. “He began walking up and down the carriage shouting random words like ‘boom’ and ‘power’,” she said, adding she heard Williams mention “the word ‘devil" but “much of what he said was inaudible as he was mumbling and incoherent”. Ms Lee-Oakman said she felt “increasingly uncomfortable” and after leaving the train at St Neots she messaged the British Transport Police. Jurors were earlier shown video footage of Williams at Ritzy barber shop in Peterborough on October 31 last year, where he went inside with a knife causing people to move away. In footage he is heard swearing and saying “liar” outside the shop before he went in, with much of what he said inside inaudible. Taxi driver Mohammed Zahir, who picked up Williams outside the barber shop, said in a statement that Williams said “go” in an “aggressive manner” as he got in the vehicle and sat in the rear left seat. He said: “He was talking to himself saying ‘I’m coming London, I’m coming London, I’m coming home’.” He said he dropped Williams in Langford Road, Peterborough, and could see Williams “drop something large and silver on the floor” then “quickly dropped his rucksack on top”. The driver said he drove away but was later called back by his firm as Williams “had left his phone on the back seat” and had also booked a journey from Langford Road to Peterborough train station. He said that during this second journey Williams “started talking to himself again” and “punching me softly on my left shoulder saying ‘hurry up, quick’”. Mr Zahir said he was “quite scared” by his behaviour. The trial continues.