UK police are being accused of negligence after it was alleged the Peterborough knife terrorist evaded police for days before going on a rampage.
The 32-year-old man waved a kitchen knife through a Peterborough barber shop twice in as many days before unleashing a mass stabbing on a high-speed train, leaving police under fire for failing to act swiftly on early warnings.
Anthony Williams, stormed Ritzy Barbers in Fletton on Friday evening, Oct. 31, at 7:14 p.m., moments after allegedly stabbing a 14-year-old boy in the city centre, according to CCTV footage obtained by the Daily Mail.
Barber Cody Greene, 23, recounted the intruder shouting incoherently while brandishing the blade, sending customers fleeing to the back room. The incident wasn't reported until 9:10 p.m.—nearly two hours later—when Cambridgeshire Police asked staff to upload footage online rather than dispatching officers, sources told the BBC.
Greene said the same man returned Saturday morning at 9:25 a.m., again waving the knife threateningly. Police were alerted but couldn't locate him, per a force statement.
Just hours later, Williams allegedly attacked a passenger on a London DLR train before boarding an LNER service from Doncaster, where he stabbed 10 people—nine critically—after departing Peterborough. The train halted at Huntingdon station, where armed officers tasered and arrested him at 7:42 p.m.
British Transport Police, probing links to the three Peterborough incidents, charged Williams Monday with 11 counts of attempted murder, actual bodily harm and blade possession. He mumbled "no fixed abode" at Peterborough Magistrates' Court before remand to Cambridge Crown Court on Dec. 1.
"Why no intervention?" demanded local MP Christopher Philp in Parliament, questioning if London police, aware of Williams post-DLR attack, alerted Cambridgeshire forces. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood hailed a rail worker heroically injured while shielding passengers, now critically stable, and announced a rail network police surge through Tuesday.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary self-referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which rejected a formal probe as victims lacked prior police contact. Knife crime advocates decried the lapses amid a national 87 per cent rise over a decade, urging mental health flags and faster responses. Five victims remain hospitalized; the 14-year-old boy suffered minor wounds.