Trio hurt in collision at road junction
A 20-YEAR-OLD man faces a “substantial” jail term for stabbing an on-duty plain-clothes police officer with a 10-inch Rambo knife.
Unemployed Andrew Beadie had a string of convictions including for battery and possession of a knife and had just been released on licence at the time of the random attack.
He was caught on CCTV punching an unidentified man on the evening of Tuesday November 22 last year, minutes before he repeatedly knifed the officer in the stomach.
The court heard how Beadie had armed himself with at least one knife before he got a train to Bow Church, east London, with his 34-year-old girlfriend and her teenage twins.
Just before 9pm, he punched a man to the ground for bumping into him in Bow Road.
The group then went into an alleyway by the Bow Bells pub where Beadie accosted the officer, accusing him of looking at his girlfriend.
He produced a large Rambostyle knife and stabbed him in the stomach before running off.
The court heard Beadie was unaware of the officer’s identity and thought he was a crack addict.
The officer, who is attached to the Met Specialist Crime and Operations division, suffered three wounds and was given first aid by colleagues before an ambulance arrived.
Beadie was arrested a week later and an examination of his phone revealed a picture of a knife taken two days after the attack.
It is believed to be the weapon he used to stab the officer, although it has never been found.
An Old Bailey jury convicted Beadie, of Claremont Road, Basildon, of assault by beating and wounding the officer with intent, but cleared him of the more serious charge of attempted murder.
Judge Rebecca Poulet QC remanded him in custody and asked for a report on whether he should be treated as a dangerous offender. She said: “I’m really troubled by the randomness and the viciousness of this conduct. His own sister was worried about him.
“I have to say I appreciate the very unhappy start this man had in life, and that is clearly the case, but this was very serious. He is inevitably looking at quite a substantial custodial sentence.
“The defendant was in possession of a large Rambo knife and caused serious injury to a plain clothes police officer and he has been convicted of a much lesser assault of a man in the street just minutes earlier.”
The judge adjourned sentencing until June 16.
The Met’s Detective Chief Inspector Gary Holmes said: “This was a cowardly, unprovoked and sickening knife attack on a police officer.
“We will never know quite what motivated Beadie to embark upon a series of violent assaults that night, but throughout his interview with police and his evidence to the jury he has shown not a shred of genuine remorse.
“He would not have known that the victim of his final act of violence that night was a police officer and it is just sheer luck that the injuries he sustained were not life-threatening.
“The knife had a 10-inch blade and was a terrifying weapon. There can be no doubt Beadie intended to cause abject fear that night and serious harm.”
Witnesses are sought to a collision which left three people injured on Thornton Road.
The incident involved a silver Vauxhall Vectra, a black Vauxhall Vectra and a black Nissan GTR at the junction with City Road at around 2.45pm on Wednesday.
The road was closed for a number of hours while emergency services attended.