Video: CCTV shows knifeman rampaging through Doncaster-London train

A “marauding” knifeman who stabbed 10 people on a Doncaster to London train smiled and said to a police officer afterwards “do you reckon it was worth it?”, a court has heard.

Anthony Williams, 33, was heard by another passenger to “shout he had a knife, that he wasn’t afraid to use it and this: ‘everybody’s gonna die today’,” prosecutor Christopher Paxton KC told Cambridge Crown Court.

The barrister told jurors: “The defendant has some mental health issues which may or may not become relevant during this trial.

“If they become relevant, then at the appropriate moment you may hear more about them.”

CCTV footage played in court – some of which has been publicly released – shows Williams walking along the train, knife in hand, as passengers flee and others tried to fend him off with items such as frying pans or toasters.

Another video played in court showed his arrest by police with Tasers after the service was halted in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, on November 1 last year.

Mr Paxton said after Williams was arrested and taken to a police station in Cambridge he “was rocking and smiling to himself, and said to the officer, ‘do you reckon it was worth it?’”.

He said Williams punched an officer in the nose in custody and admits having done so.

Mr Paxton said a member of train staff, Samir Zitouni, who was working in the train’s kitchen area, used a frying pan to try to defend himself and others from Williams.

The prosecutor said Mr Zitouni recalls asking Williams to stop, saying to him “no man” and “we love you, we can help you”.

“Mr Zitouni’s calmness and compassion were extraordinary, seeking to de-escalate what the defendant Mr Williams had started,” said Mr Paxton.

“Mr Zitouni said he felt, and I quote, ‘terrorised’, that he was trying to hit the knife but that he, Mr Zitouni, did not want to give up until the train stopped,” he said.

The court heard Mr Zitouni sustained numerous stab wounds to his chest, arms, forearm and thigh.

CCTV footage played in court shows Mr Zitouni get off the train at Huntingdon, his shirt red with blood, while others also fled from the carriages.

He is seen stumbling and falling through the gap between the train and the platform, and was later taken to hospital in a “life-threatening condition”, and had emergency treatment including four blood transfusions.

Mr Paxton said another passenger saw Williams stab someone “over and over again” who was trying to protect her.

The prosecutor said the woman heard Williams say: “I’m gonna kill you.

“I will stab you if you don’t move. You need to let me through.”

Another passenger, Raza Aslam, heard people say a man was saying “the devil won’t win” before he saw Williams with a knife, Mr Paxton said.

He said car delivery driver Mr Aslam grabbed a frying pan but was stabbed in the hand by Williams and felt an “immediate loss of energy from his arm”.

Mr Paxton said train staff member Mr Zitouni started throwing things at the defendant and “saved” Mr Aslam’s life.

The prosecutor said Mr Aslam told police Williams “had the greatest delight on his face”.

Mr Aslam said: “I saw his eyes expand with pleasure.

“I saw the contempt on his face, like a person who’s high.

“He was just loving every single moment. He loved seeing us in desperation.”

Another passenger, Scott Green, was travelling with his dog Poppy when he “felt a jab to his left side, then he saw a knife, then he saw the defendant”.

Mr Green told police he thought “I have to get the knife” and “I’ve gone to grab the knife, and I remember the pain”.

He said he “tried to yank it, but I couldn’t remove it” and remembered the “sharpness”.

He said his dog started barking and Williams had “done a runner and the last I saw was him running down the aisle”.

Mr Paxton said it seemed that Poppy “saved the day” for Mr Green.

The prosecutor said the defendant had previously been “bitten by a dog” in an “unrelated incident”.

He said Mr Green took his dog and ran the other way along the train, and a woman pulled them to safety in a toilet.

The service had left Peterborough at around 7.29pm and was stopped at Huntingdon train station at 7.44pm by the “quick-thinking” train driver.

Williams denies the attempted murders of 10 people on the service.

A recording of a call made by passenger Stephen Crean was played to the jury, in which he said “I need help” and “I’m scared” from a toilet he locked himself inside until police knocked on the door at Huntingdon station.

The court was shown footage of Mr Crean confronting Williams, after telling others to shut the door and stay hidden in a cafe bar area of the train, when he was stabbed to his back, hip, fingers and head.

Mr Paxton told the court: “Mr Crean had no knife, no weapon, and looked, he will tell you, the defendant in the eyes, and Mr Crean says the defendant said something he will never forget.

“It was these words, ‘Do you want to die?’”

The court heard Mr Crean, who was a Nottingham Forest fan travelling home from a game, described Williams as being on a “mission” during the attack and their interaction “was like Come Dancing, it was like we were all over the place”.

Williams denies the attempted murders of 10 people on the train.

He also denies the attempted murders of three people in Peterborough on the evening of October 31, and of a 17-year-old boy at Pontoon Dock DLR station in London in the early hours of November 1.

He has admitted intending to cause harm.

The trial continues.