A hero police officer who confronted a terrorist as he launched a frenzied attack on train commuters has told how the knifeman ran towards him and ‘lunged’ at his head with the blade.
Sergeant Lee Valentine, 31, has spoken of the moment he pulled the trigger on his Taser but failed to stop crazed lone wolf Mahdi Mohamud who was armed with a fillet knife.
He was with colleague Pc Tom Wright, 27, on duty at Manchester Victoria railway station when he heard a shocking scream as Mohamud launched the attack.
Sgt Valentine said he felt ‘massively’ lucky not to be more seriously injured in the attack last New Year’s Eve.
The crazed knifeman, 26, had 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 50s, randomly crossed his path heading for a tram platform shortly before 9pm last December 31.
Sgt Valentine said: ‘I didn’t even get the chance to take the fired cartridge off the top before he just started running towards me.
‘He probably closed a seven foot gap in half a second. ‘It was just like a dive, he flew, he probably jumped three or four foot off the ground and just sort of lunged, probably lunged at my head with his knife.’
Two victims were pictured receiving treatment after the incident last New Year’s Eve
Sergeant Lee Valentine (second from left) has told how he confronted the terrorist knifeman. Pictured left to right: Metrolink worker Adam Ward, BTP officers Sergeant Valentine, Pc Marsha Selby, Pc Ashleigh Williams, Pc Tom Wright and Metrolink worker Miah Uddin at a commendation ceremony following their actions during the knife attack
Mohamud at Manchester Crown Court today admitted three counts of attempted murder and one count of 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’.
Talking of the moment he heard the attack, Sgt Valentine said: ‘It was just like a scream I had never heard before, it was literally like someone was being killed.’
Fellow British Transport Police (BTP) 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.
The suspect was pepper sprayed before seconds later Pc Wright, 27, arrived along with Sgt Valentine, the only one armed with a 50,000 volt Taser gun.
A witness took this photo of the aftermath after two rail passengers and a policeman were stabbed last New Years’s Eve
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.
In an interview released after Mohamud pleaded guilty today, Sergeant Valentine, 31, said: ‘It was just like a scream I had never heard before, it was literally like someone was being killed.’
Pictures of the aftermath show the suspect’s trainer on the floor as an officer removes the knife
He said he got his Taser out ‘straight away’ when he arrived on the scene.
He added: ‘You could just see him dancing around, waving this knife around, stepping towards us as if I’m going to, sort of, come towards you.
‘Then I’ve come down, got past the guys and girls in the yellow jackets in the line, just gone in front so I can get a decent shot at tasering him.
‘It just didn’t work.
A discharged taser lies on the platform of Manchester Victoria station after the attack
‘He had a really thick coat on, like a bubble jacket, and the old style Tasers that we use, sometimes it’s ineffective if somebody is wearing a number of layers or a thick coat.’
The officer put his hands up to protect his head and Mohamud stabbed the officer in his shoulder before grappling on the ground as the other officers dived in.
He said: ‘One of the things for me, obviously when I’ve landed on top of him being so close to his face to be literally like looking in his eyes and he’s like – there’s nothing there.
‘It’s just like a complete, it’s…I don’t know, you can’t describe it, he just, he just wasn’t there.
Forensics at the scene of the attack last New Year’s Eve at Victoria Station in Manchester
‘I think we’ve all dealt with people who have got certain issues, drugged up people, people who are really drunk, taken all sorts of stuff, but the look on his face when you are that close to him and you just see nothing there, it’s just…he’s shouting and he’s screaming and he’s sweating.
‘The look on his face, not even that of like a madmen just somebody who was just like intent on, he just wasn’t there.
‘Like just, he just was not there, it was just like, it was just like an animal.’
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 on Tuesday 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’.
He will be sentenced later.
Sgt Valentine suffered a stab wound and was treated in hospital.
He and his BTP colleagues and the two tram staff received Chief Constable’s commendations for their bravery.
Sgt Valentine added: ‘My injuries weren’t serious, the injuries to the couple were serious, but we’ve spoke to them since and they’ve bounced back from it.
‘And I think the important thing for me is nobody died, no one, and that’s the key thing.’
He has returned to work and will be back on duty on New Year’s Eve.
Speaking about the two Metrolink staff who were given bravery awards, Sgt Valentine said: ‘It was like having six police officers, purely because they didn’t shy away, they could easily have took a step back.
‘But what they did was the biggest thing they could have done to help us and that was stand with these two (the first two officers on the scene) who were on their own, he’d just stabbed two people, they stood next to them and as soon as he ended up on the floor with me everyone swarmed in. So their actions were unreal.’
