Huntingdon train ‘mass stabber’ refuses to appear in court

A man accused of a series of violent incidents across Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and London, culminating in the mass stabbing on an LNER service bound for the capital, has refused to attend a further court hearing as a provisional trial date was set for next summer.

Anthony Williams, 32, faces 21 charges in total after prosecutors linked a sequence of alleged offences committed over a 48-hour period to the knife attack on a train travelling from Doncaster to London on 1 November. He is charged with 10 counts of attempted murder and possession of a knife in relation to the incident that halted the service at Huntingdon station, where emergency responders treated multiple casualties on the platform.

Williams remained in the cells during Monday’s hearing at Cambridge Crown Court after declining to appear. He has yet to enter any pleas. Judge Mark Bishop, sitting in his absence, listed the case for a further hearing on 28 January and set a provisional trial date of 22 June.

The court heard that Williams is also accused of attempting to murder a man at Pontoon Dock DLR station in east London earlier the same day and of assaulting a police officer in custody. Seven additional charges, to which he failed to attend at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on 19 November, were formally joined to the indictment.

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Those counts concern alleged offences in Peterborough on 31 October, including the attempted murders of a 14-year-old boy at Henry Penn Walk and a 22-year-old man near Pleasure Fair Meadow Road, the attempted wounding of a 28-year-old man at Viersen Platz, affray at a barbershop, multiple incidents of knife possession in public places, theft of knives from an Asda store in Stevenage, and the assault of a 31-year-old man on a train between King’s Cross and Peterborough on 1 November.

Williams, previously recorded in court as being of no fixed abode, remains in custody.