Leave me now! Go and save yourself

Stabbed four times. His life draining away. Terrorists on the rampage. But brave victim told policewoman who rushed to aid...

SLUMPED on a pavement, slipping in and out of consciousness, Brett Freeman heard gunshots ringing out behind him.

Panic-stricken crowds stampeded, and a ‘look of fear’ spread across the face of the British Transport policewoman kneeling at his side. Brett, 32, had been stabbed four times in the back by one of the London Bridge terrorists, with one of the wounds puncturing his lung. Life was draining from his body.

‘We didn’t know if it was the terrorists or the police firing,’ says Brett, the father of three young children. ‘We were petrified. I said to the policewoman: “Leave me now – go and save yourself.”’

Yet with chaos unfolding around them, the officer, Emily Lewis, displaying fortitude that has characterised the emergency services response to the outrage, refused to let go of his hand. She would remain with Brett for a further two hours, until he was safely inside King’s College Hospital in South London where doctors saved his life.

‘If it wasn’t for Emily, who kept me talking, who wouldn’t leave me, I might not have reached hospital alive,’ says Brett, in an interview with The Mail on Sunday.

‘I could see how scared she was – we all were – but she didn’t think of her own safety.’

Emily, in turn, is full of praise for the way Brett himself coped.

She wrote on Facebook: ‘He was so brave and selfless and didn’t stop joking the whole time! I’m so glad he is OK.’

Now recovering from his wounds back at home with his fiancée Amy, 32, who is expecting their fourth child next month, and sons Freddy, nine, Billy, seven and one-year-old Tom, Brett told how he ended up in London Bridge by chance after a day at Epsom races with friends.

And Amy spoke of the frantic hours when Brett was missing and of only discovering he was in hospital through a Find My Phone app.

Brett, a machine operator at Ford in Dagenham, England, and a friend arrived at London Bridge at 7.45pm having missed a train.

‘We got off and thought we would have a few drinks before returning home,’ he says. ‘I don’t know the area and don’t know which pub we were in, but I think it was close to Borough Market.’

Sometime after 10pm he and his friend became separated and soon afterwards he heard screaming.

Nearby, having mown down people on London Bridge, terrorists Khuram Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba began stabbing anyone who crossed their paths. In all, eight people were killed and 48 injured. All three fanatics were shot dead by police.

Brett recalls: ‘Everyone started running so at that point, I just started running.’

Brett can remember only fragments of what happened next.

He believes one of the attackers, none of whom he saw, must have slashed at him from behind using what police now say was a 12in ceramic pink kitchen knife.

‘I didn’t feel anything, I didn’t know I had been stabbed, but I realised I was slowing down. There was a draining sensation and then I collapsed,’ he says.

‘When I came round, Emily was crouched over me, telling me everything was going to be all right.

At this point he lost consciousness again and was rushed to hospital.

Back at their home, Amy saw a message on Facebook which mentioned how Brett and others had been at London Bridge. By now, she was frantic but was able to trace Brett’s phone to King’s College Hospital using the ‘Find My iPhone’ app.

She immediately drove to the hospital and was told only that he had been stabbed and was stable.

‘We were thinking, “OK he’s here, he’s alive anyway – that’s all we can ask for,”’ says Amy. ‘We weren’t allowed to see him.

‘For the first two hours I was just thinking what am I going to tell the children if he doesn’t come home?’

She was eventually allowed to see Brett at around 5am. ‘It was a huge relief to see him but shocking at the same time,’ says Amy.

Reflecting on the attack, Brett adds: ‘I was lucky; I feel blessed, but others weren’t. I can only thank everyone who helped me, particularly Emily – I owe her my life.’

‘I could see how scared she was – we all were ’