Hampton stabbing victim: 'I thought, this is it, I'm going to die'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-37858982

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A man who carried out a frenzied stabbing attack in a supermarket car park in west London has been found guilty of two counts of attempted murder and two counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. Here one of his victims recalls the terrifying attack.

Janet Morsy had just parked outside Sainsbury's in Hampton on 20 May and was walking to catch a bus when she heard someone shout: "There's a man with a knife."

Unbeknown to her, Ethem Orhon, a 67-year-old Turkish national, was intent on exacting revenge on strangers for his arrest the previous day for carrying a knife.

"He was [standing] there, looking at me," Ms Morsy said. "Eight feet (2.4m) away. Arms outstretched with a dagger."

For a moment, they looked each other in the eyes.

"I thought, this is it, I'm going to die here in Sainsbury's car park. He looked at me and I said, 'please don't, please don't do it. Please don't do it'."

Grabbing for her, he swung her around, and stabbed her in the rib cage, puncturing a vein.

"I wanted someone to come and stop him, in this busy car park but there was no-one," she said.

He stabbed her twice more. Once in the hip and once in the arm, as she was shielding her face.

Running through her mind was the overpowering desire not to leave her family bereaved. "I thought, my kids, my grandchildren, I don't want to leave anyone now."

"As he was doing it, it was like he was doing it to somebody else."

"I thought this is it, he's going to carry on, I'm going to die, and suddenly he disappeared."

Her screams were heard by Sally Cadle, who was inside the nearby YMCA building she manages. Thinking it may have been children in trouble she leapt up and went into the garden to see what was happening.

Through the garden gate she spotted Ms Morsy who had staggered back to her car and was holding on to the back of it for support.

"I ran quickly into the YMCA to find something to stem the bleeding and started to apply pressure to the wounds," Ms Cadle said.

Emergency services have since said Ms Cadle's swift action saved Ms Morsy's life. But she is modest about her actions.

"If you have been first aid trained, you do what you know that you are supposed to do," she said.

Ms Morsy still suffers from the trauma of the day.

"Recently I had a nightmare about a man with a machete.

"Even when I put the rubbish out, I tend to check to the right that there's no-one crouching under my window, silly little things like that."

She said living close to the car park where she nearly died is a constant reminder of the attack.

"I'm scared it's going to happen again. It's never out of my mind when I'm out."

But she keeps herself busy, volunteering and going shopping, even though she finds it difficult to walk.

The daily challenge she faces now is to "just get on with living."