Police probe link between street and Huntingdon train attacks

Police are reviewing whether a stabbing in September that left a man with serious facial injuries is connected to the recent attacks on a train near Huntingdon.

Ricky Butcher, 35, is understood to have been waiting for a taxi outside the Fletton Club in Peterborough with a group of people on 27 September when a man appeared and confronted him with a knife.

Cambridgeshire Police said detectives were considering if the attack may be connected to a mass stabbing on a train near Huntingdon, and an attack at a station in Silvertown, east London, both on Saturday.

Anthony Williams, 32, has been charged with 11 counts of attempted murder over the Huntingdon and London attacks and remanded in custody.

He has also been linked to the stabbing of a 14-year-old boy in Peterborough city centre on Friday, and two incidents in which a man reportedly entered a barber’s shop in the city – on at least one occasion holding a knife – on Friday and Saturday

Speaking about the incident at the Fletton Club, Mr Butcher said: “I was rushed to hospital with a laceration to my mouth and had about 10 or 15 stitches.

“My face is now numb, and probably always will be, due to the cut.”

He told the BBC he was “fuming” with the police, who dropped their investigation two days later.

“They could have taken it more seriously – I had five witnesses with me,” he said.

Mr Butcher said police reopened his case on Monday and began interviewing witnesses, adding: “They are also looking into my complaint about why [the assault] wasn’t taken seriously enough.”

Cambridgeshire Police referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) over the city centre and barber’s shop incidents.

However, the IOPC said it would not be investigating, as these “did not meet the criteria for a valid referral”.

However, Daryl Preston, Cambridgeshire’s Conservative police and crime commissioner, has asked for an internal review.

British Transport Police (BTP), which is leading the investigation into the train attacks, said any connected incidents prior to 31 October were “a matter for the local force”.

Four people remain in hospital following the stabbings, which took place shortly after the London North Eastern Railway (LNER) service from Doncaster to London King’s Cross left Peterborough station.

They include staff member Samir Zitouni, 48, who has been praised for protecting passengers during the incident.

BTP said he remained “critically unwell but stable”.