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| Man pleads guilty to New Year's Eve knife attack in Manchester | Man pleads guilty to New Year's Eve knife attack in Manchester |
| (30 minutes later) | |
| Mahdi Mohamud admits terrorism offence and three counts of attempted murder | Mahdi Mohamud admits terrorism offence and three counts of attempted murder |
| A man who launched a knife attack on commuters and police at Manchester Victoria railway station on New Year’s Eve has pleaded guilty to attempted murder. | |
| Mahdi Mohamud, 26, raised a fillet knife and walked up behind James Knox, shouting Islamist slogans as he stabbed him repeatedly in the back, shoulders and head. He then turned on Knox’s companion, Anna Charlton, and slashed her across the face. The couple, in their 50s, had been heading for a tram platform shortly before 9pm on 31 December. | |
| PCs Ashleigh Williams, 27, and her colleague Marsha Selby, 28, from the British Transport police ran to the scene after hearing screaming. Along with two tram staff, they confronted Mohamud. Witnesses said he was “like an animal” and was “fixated” on stabbing and slashing. | |
| The suspect was pepper-sprayed. Shortly afterwards, PC Tom Wright arrived with Sgt Lee Valentine who shot Mohamud with his Taser. But the barbs of the 50,000-volt shock-gun got stuck in his thick coat and failed to paralyse him. Mohamud then ran along the platform charging at the officers. 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. | |
| Knox suffered 13 injuries including a fractured skull while 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 said. He was detained under the Mental Health Act the day after the attack but was later found fit to stand trial. | |
| On Tuesday, Mohamud pleaded guilty at Manchester crown court 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 entitled “The seven most lethal ways to strike with a knife”. | |
| He will be sentenced later. |