Train knifeman appeared to believe 17-year-old victim was the devil, court hears

A man who stabbed a teenager on a train in London appeared to believe the boy was the devil, a court has heard.

Anthony Williams, 33, denies attempting to murder then-17-year-old Isaiah Idris in the early hours of 1 November last year, while on a Docklands Light Railway (DLR) train heading to Pontoon Dock station.

Jurors previously heard that Williams cut Mr Idris, now 18, on the face and on his hand as he tried to block his attacker.

He denies the charge, as well as the attempted murders of 10 people on a London-bound LNER train that was stopped in Huntingdon the same evening, and of three in Peterborough the day prior, on 31 October 2025.

In a pre-recorded interview played to Cambridge Crown Court on Tuesday, Macarena Lopez - who witnessed the incident while travelling home from a Halloween dinner - said a man on the DLR "started to be loud" and was "brandishing a knife".

She told police that he appeared to be "specifically targeting a boy who seemed to me like a teenager... who was with a girl next to him".

Ms Lopez said the man "fixated on the boy and started saying 'you are the devil', or 'you are the demon'".

Ms Lopez said she believed the man was having a "psychotic episode" and "was seeing things that were not clear to the rest of us".

"The attacker for some reason he thought this boy was the devil and wanted to harm him," she added.

"I remember hyperventilating a lot and really hoping he didn't do any more harm as it was so unpredictable, it was so senseless, there was no story to it."

Ms Lopez said in the recorded interview that when the train arrived at Pontoon Dock station, the doors opened and "almost like by magic his brain just switched off, that psychotic mind just calmed down as he just left the station as soon as he could".

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Mr Idris told police, in a video interview played to jurors earlier in the trial, that he remembered Williams, who he did not know, saying: "Are you beefing with the devil?"

Mr Justice Calver earlier told jurors at Cambridge Crown Court that whether Williams carried out the attacks is not in question, but they must consider whether he intended to kill those individuals when he did so.

The trial continues.

(c) Sky News 2026: Train knifeman appeared to believe 17-year-old victim was the devil, court hears