Anthony Williams pleaded guilty at Cambridge Crown Court to 12 counts of wounding with intent and two counts of attempting to wound with intent. The 33-year-old, of Langford Road in Peterborough, appeared via video link from Rampton Hospital in Nottinghamshire, while his case on 14 counts of attempted murder remains set for trial next Monday.
The pleas cover part of the Cambridgeshire train stabbing case, but they do not end it. Christopher Paxton KC told the court that the guilty pleas do not resolve the indictment, so there will be a trial.
Cambridge Crown Court hearing
Williams’ admission means the court no longer has to decide whether he was guilty of the wounding counts he entered this Monday. It also leaves open the attempted murder allegations that prosecutors say arose from the events on the train near Huntingdon and in related incidents in Peterborough and London.
The train passengers and staff were injured on the 18:25 Doncaster-London service on Saturday, 1 November after it left Peterborough. The train made an unscheduled stop at Huntingdon railway station after the incident. Williams had previously pleaded not guilty to attempting to murder Jonathan Gjoshe, Sachin Balakrishnan, David Presland, Scott Bletcher, Scott Green, Kevin Deely, Stephen Crean, Raza Aslam, Michael Paffett and Samir Zitouni on that train.
Peterborough and London incidents
The guilty pleas also reach beyond the train attack. Williams pleaded guilty to affray at a barber shop in Peterborough on 31 October, admitted the theft of knives from an Asda store in Stevenage on the same day, and pleaded guilty to possessing a bladed article in a public place in Peterborough on 31 October.
He also admitted possessing a bladed article in a public place at Pontoon Dock DLR station at Silvertown, east London, in the early hours of 1 November, and possessing a bladed article in a public place on the train between Peterborough and Huntingdon on 1 November. He admitted common assault on a Govia Thames Link train between London St Pancras and Biggleswade in Bedfordshire on 1 November, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm of a male police officer on 2 November.
Trial next Monday
Despite those admissions, Williams still denies 14 counts of attempted murder. That split leaves the prosecution to prove the remaining charges at a trial expected to last six weeks, with the court now moving from guilty pleas on lesser offences to the allegations that still carry the highest stakes for the case.
The unresolved charges include three counts of attempted murder in Peterborough and one count at Pontoon Dock DLR station. What happened on the train and in the related Peterborough and London incidents will be tested in court next Monday, with the admitted offences already narrowing the dispute but not ending it.
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