I stared evil in the eye
Off-duty nurse looked into London Bridge terrorist’s ‘soulless, empty’ eyes and asked: ‘What’s wrong with you?’ He replied: ‘No, what’s wrong with YOU?’ – and stabbed her in the neck
AN OFF- DUTY nurse was stabbed in the neck by a ‘soulless and evil’ fanatic as she tried to help a victim of the London Bridge atrocity, an inquest heard yesterday.
When Helen Kennett was confronted by the knife-wielding jihadi, she said: ‘What’s wrong with you?’
The killer – thought to be Rachid Redouane – replied ‘no, what’s wrong with you?’, before stabbing her in the neck with a 12-inch kitchen knife.
Miss Kennett, 37, was celebrating her birthday with her mother and sister in a restaurant when she saw French waiter Alexandre Pigeard – one of eight victims killed by the trio of killers – with a stab wound to his neck.
She told him she was a nurse and offered to help him, but he shook his head and said: ‘No, just run.’
Giving evidence at the Old Bailey, Miss Kennett said: ‘Before I could process what was happening, [the terrorist] stabbed me in the neck to the left side.
‘I just remember his eyes. They were soulless. Evil. They were empty.
‘The only way I can describe it was like somebody had thrown a bucket of warm water over me.
‘I felt this rushing all down my body and I thought “oh no, I’ve been stabbed as well”.’
Miss Kennett, from Leicestershire, placed her hand over the wound in an attempt to hide it from her mother and sister to avoid alarming them.
She then spotted two terrorists attacking other diners at the Boro Bistro restaurant after leaping over bushes to get to them.
‘Everybody was screaming,’ the nurse said. ‘I thought “I cannot help anybody, I’m going to die”.
‘I did not want to die there. I wanted to die around the corner with my family. I knew I had to leave, I thought I’ve probably only got a couple of minutes.
‘I knew what happens if you bleed a lot and knew my airway had been punctured, my oesophagus, and was worried my artery had been struck.’
Miss Kennett escaped to a nearby pub with her sister and mother. At one point, she slipped to the floor in her own blood and borrowed a man’s T-shirt to tie around her wound.
She then walked 100 yards via a flight of stairs to reach an ambulance which took her to Kings College Hospital.
The nurse was drinking in the restaurant when Khuram Butt, 27, Youssef Killer with 12 inch knife: Redouane Zaghba, 22, and Redouane, 30, launched their attack shortly after 10pm on June 3, 2017.
She heard their Renault van crash into railings nearby. Assuming it was a car crash, she instinctively got up to see if she could help.
‘I glanced and saw people running down the steps, three men. They looked frantic,’ Miss Kennett said.
‘I saw a man [Mr Pigeard] who was very, very injured.
‘There was just a lot of blood and then, as I got closer, I saw there was a cut right across the neck.
‘I knew in my mind that was not a survivable injury. He was almost being supported by the attacker who had another arm up in the air ready to strike. I spoke to him, I put my arm to him and said: “Let me help you, I’m a nurse.” He shook his head, he looked frightened. He said “no, just run”.’
Mr Pigeard, 26, died minutes later from his injuries, despite the attempts of police medics to save him.
Earlier, Andzelika Abokaityte described seeing an ‘evil and smiling’ fanatic stab him repeatedly.
‘As he was stabbing, the attacker was looking around to find the next person to stab,’ she said. ‘I remember thinking: “I’m going to die”. The whole thing was horrific.’
Geoffrey Huet, a diner at Boro Bistro, said he was sure it was Redouane who attacked Mr Pigeard and then Miss Kennett, after seeing the terrorist’s picture on a TV news bulletin. He told the court: ‘He had this craziness in his eyes, this anger. He looked furious.’
Tomasso Clemente, who was also in the restaurant, told how NHS nurse Kirsty Boden, 28, was repeatedly stabbed after trying to help Mr Pigeard. He said: ‘I saw this guy, he was bent over her. He was stabbing this girl.
‘At the beginning, I thought he was trying to help her to stand up, but then I saw he pulled a knife from her belly.
‘I saw the knife going through her two or three times.
‘Next to her there was a guy lying on the floor, I recognised him as a waiter because I had seen him around the place. I noticed he was covered in blood and he was holding his throat with his hands.’
Before being shot dead by police, the terrorists murdered Christine Archibald, 30, and Xavier Thomas, 45, with the van and fatally stabbed Sara Zelenak, 21, Sebastien Belanger, 36, Miss Boden, 28, James McMullan, 32, and Ignacio Echeverria, 39, as well as Mr Pigeard.
Another 48 people were injured. The inquest continues.
‘I wanted to die with my family’