Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
No, Usman... please
Victim tells how she begged for mercy before terrorist knifed her
A SURVIVOR of the Fishmongers’ Hall attack played dead after terrorist Usman Khan plunged the blade into her neck to “finish” her.
Izzy Rowbotham told an inquest how she pleaded with the killer, who she knew: “No Usman, please don’t”, as Khan bore down on her with an 8-inch kitchen knife in each hand.
Giving evidence at the inquest into the deaths of two of Khan’s victims, Izzy said she had been in the foyer of the building when Khan attacked her.
Being stabbed repeatedly felt like punches, Izzy told the inquest at London’s Guildhall.
She said: “The final stabs were in my neck and it felt like he thought they were the final stabs, in that they were intended to finish me. I decided to play dead just in case he came back.” Izzy knew the killer as she was an office manager for Learning Together, the prisoner rehabilitation organisation hosting the event. She was knifed moments after seeing Jack Merritt, 25, stagger into the room after he had been attacked.
She said: “He was holding his stomach There was a lot of blood.”
Later, she tried to dial 999 but there was “too much blood to press the screen”, she said. Jack and Saskia Jones, 23, were killed by Khan during his five-minute rampage on November 29, 2019.
The inquest heard that Jack had rebooked a rail ticket for his killer after Khan’s train to the capital had been cancelled.
Cleaner Ama Otchere said she came face-to-face with Khan. As she backed away with her hands up, he with “anger in his face” lifted a knife above his head with his right hand and put his finger to his lips with his left, as if to tell her not to scream.
Describing the attack on Saskia, Ms Otchere said: “As soon as he saw the lady come to the cloakroom he used the knife to stab the lady’s shoulder.
“The lady was screaming and I just ran from the scene.”
Saskia died from a “catastrophic haemorrhage” after being stabbed in the neck.
Receptionist Dawn Batchelor confirmed there were no bag searches or security checks of those arriving at the event with guests just giving their name.
Khan, who wore a fake suicide vest, was tackled by members of the public with a decorative pike, narwhal tusk and fire extinguisher, and was then shot dead by police on London Bridge.
The inquest continues.
I decided I had to play dead just in case he came back IZZY ROWBOTHAM WAS STABBED BY KHAN