WARNING: The footage included in this article has been partially blurred but remains distressing to watch.
A jury has been shown footage of a man being repeatedly stabbed with a large knife on a train between Shortlands and Beckenham Junction.
Rakeem Thomas, 19, is on trial for attempted murder after the footage went viral and made headlines on March 27 this year.
During his opening speech to the jury on Monday (September 9), prosecutor Michael Williams played the video which was recorded by a passenger on the Southeastern train.
He told the jury that during the three-minute journey between the stations, terrified passengers saw a chance-encounter between the two men escalate into a life-threatening stabbing.
Thomas was standing by the train doors when it pulled into Shortlands and stopped at the exact spot where the victim, aged in his 20s, was standing.
“There is no evidence that either male knew they were going to come face-to-face with one another as the train doors opened,” Mr Williams said.
“Immediately violence started between the two men. The reason the prosecution cannot be sure, undoubtedly there must have been a background to this. The prosecution does not say this was a random attack on a stranger.”
Various witnesses initially described the fight as “ruffling about” and “back and forth” but it escalated quickly.
It was when the victim was thrown to the floor that passengers first noticed the knife in Thomas’ hands, Mr Williams said.
One passenger described it as “more like a sword” while another described it as a “Rambo knife”.
Thomas repeatedly plunged the knife into the victim and only paused once so he could catch his breath, Mr Williams said.
Meanwhile the terrified passengers, including at least one child, were trapped with no route to get away from the knife-fight.
“He chose to remain and repeatedly stab [the victim] over and over again. Passengers were screaming at him to stop, he ignored them and he continued the attack,” Mr Williams said.
'It was either him or me'
After Thomas fled the train when it arrived at Beckenham Junction station, passengers took the victim to a platform bench where a recently retired surgeon gave him first aid.
Paramedics who arrived within 15 minutes said his wounds were too numerous to count. They included a chest wound which had fractured his breast bone.
He was rushed to hospital where he underwent life-saving surgery.
Mr Williams alleged that the victim survived despite the best efforts of Thomas, who had intended to murder him.
The victim refused to give a statement to police.
Meanwhile, Thomas was pursued by two of the train passengers until he managed to lose them when he jumped over a fence.
He dumped the knife and went to Elmers End where he convinced two females to let him in their taxi, Mr Williams said.
They noticed something was wrong mid-journey when they saw blood on him and heard his phone conversations.
"Don’t say that mum, it was either him or me,” he is reported to have said.
In conversation with another person he’s reported to have said: “I disarmed him. He’s done. He’s finished.”
When Thomas was arrested the following day he told police the victim had stabbed him in 2020 or 2021.
Thomas said the knife was in the other man’s waistband, but he managed to grab it as the victim reached for it.
He said he panicked and was only thinking about not getting stabbed himself, adding that he blacked out and didn’t know how many times he stabbed the victim.
He denies attempted murder, as well as an alternative charge of wounding with intent and affray – which relates to the fear he caused to other passengers.
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