Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Triple stabbing horror as gatecrashers invade party
Exclusive
Students have recounted the terrifying sequence of events leading up to a triple stabbing at a house party which left one victim fighting for his life.
A University of Kent fresher said he was celebrating his end-of-year exams at home with pals and admits “my mistake was leaving the front door open”.
Scores of gatecrashers swarmed into the converted three-bedroom house in Salisbury Road, Canterbury, after word of the event is rumoured to have circulated on social media.
The fresher told the Gazette he desperately tried to usher strangers out before finding two men with stab wounds in his conservatory and kitchen.
Another guest has told how “things kicked off” after “someone looked at someone in the wrong way”.
Asking not to be identified, the host said his party started getting “badly out of hand” shortly before midnight.
He said: “We were just chilling after the exams – we’d told the neighbours we were going to have a party. Just 20 or so of us.
“At around 11.45pm all these people started piling into the house out of nowhere. I went to the front and saw all these cars parked up. More kept pulling up.
“We didn’t have a clue who these lot were.”
The 21-year-old estimates more than 100 uninvited people had spilled into the house, which neighbours say had been a family home until September last year.
“There was no aggression at that point and I didn’t want to cause any, so I let things be at first,” he said.
“But more and more people came in, they were in the kitchen, in the conservatory, in the garden, and loads more out front.
“It was getting seriously out of hand by then. I started asking people to leave.”
The electronic engineering student, who says he is teetotal, adds that he had taken the precaution of clearing all the knives out of the kitchen and hiding them in his bedroom.
He was in the garden shepherding people into the house when he heard screams from the conservatory.
“All these people were pouring out into the garden. I had to push through them to get in,” he said.
“Everyone was edging away from this guy on the floor. He was grabbing his side, and I realised he must have been stabbed.”
The student asked a friend to call an ambulance and desperately tried to clear the house.
He then noticed another man slumped on the kitchen floor.
“It didn’t look good – he was conscious and in a great deal of pain,” he said. “A girl was stemming the blood with bits of clothing.”
None of the victims were known to those living in the house, says the tenant.
The first victim was not thought to have been seriously injured but the second, aged 19, was transferred to a London hospital in a critical condition. Medics have since stabilised him and his condition is no longer life-threatening.
A third victim was found in a road near the party with non-life threatening injuries.
Rumours have circulated that the gatecrashers found out about last Wednesday’s party on social media.
The host said: “I’ve no idea how they found out. We didn’t put it on Facebook.”
Another guest, who asked not to be named, told the Gazette: “My mate lives four doors down and we left the party to get some drinks. When we went back to the house it was all kicking off.
“It started when someone looked at someone the wrong way and there was a clash of personalities between two different groups.
“There was so much commotion between the gangs. Everyone was pushing and shoving.
“The people were hysterical and rushing to get out.”
An 18-year-old male from London has been arrested on suspicion of assault and bailed to return to Canterbury police station on September 14.