Train knifeman appeared to believe his victim was the devil, court told
A knifeman who stabbed a teenage boy on a DLR train in London appeared to believe his victim was the devil and was “seeing things that were not clear to the rest of us”, a court heard.
Anthony Williams, 33, denies attempting to murder Isaiah Idris in the early hours of November 1 last year 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 on the evening of November 1 last year.
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.
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?”
The trial continues.