Knifeman admits attempted murder over station rampage
AMAN who launched a frenzied knife attack on commuters and police at Manchester Victoria railway station last New Year’s Eve has pleaded guilty to attempted murder.
Mahdi Mohamud, 26, raised the fillet knife and walked up behind unsuspecting James Knox, screaming “Allahu Akbar!” and “Long live the Caliphate!” as he stabbed his victim repeatedly in the back, shoulders and head.
He then turned the knife on Mr Knox’s companion, Anna Charlton, slashing her across the face after the couple, in their fifties, randomly crossed his path heading for a tram platform shortly before 9pm last December 31.
British Transport Police (BTP) officers heard a blood-curdling scream and dashed to the scene.
Pc Ashleigh Williams, 27, and her colleague, Marsha Selby, 28, along with two tram staff confronted Mohamud, who “like an animal” was “fixated” on stabbing and slashing, witnesses said.
The suspect was pepper-sprayed, then seconds later Pc Tom Wright, 27, arrived along with Sergeant Lee Valentine, 31, who shot Mohamud with his Taser.
But the barbs of the 50,000-volt shock gun got stuck in the knifeman’s thick coat and failed to paralyse him.
Before he could reload the knifeman ran along the blood-spattered platform, charging at the officers with the weapon.
Sgt Valentine was stabbed in the shoulder before the suspect was wrestled to the ground and arrested.
A second kitchen knife was found in his waistband.
Mr Knox suffered 13 injuries including a skull fracture, while Ms Charlton’s right lung was punctured and she suffered a slash to her forehead that cut down to the bone.
The defendant, a Dutch national from a Somali family, had arrived in the UK aged nine and became radicalised online, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said.
Detained under the Mental Health Act the day after the attack, he was later found fit to stand trial.
Mohamud pleaded guilty at Manchester Crown Court yesterday to three counts of attempted murder.
He also admitted one count of the possession of a document or record likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, a manual titled, “the seven most lethal ways to strike with a knife”.
Mohamud had left the home he shared with his parents and brothers in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, around 8pm on December 31.
He walked the mile to the busy city-centre train station, where he launched the attack, arriving shortly before 9pm and being captured on CCTV covering the station.
The court will hear psychiatric evidence as the prosecution and defence disagree over the defendant’s mental health and how it could explain the offences he committed.
Sentencing is likely to take place this morning.