Knife attack on a train at Beckenham Junction: Trial of Rakeem Thomas

Rakeem Thomas, 19, is on trial for attempted murder after a video circulated online shows him stabbing a man on a train between Shortlands and Beckenham Junction.

During the three-minute journey between stations, frightened passengers witnessed a chance encounter between the two men escalate into a life-threatening stabbing, the jury said.

A woman screamed, “Stop the fuck,” as Thomas continued to stab the victim on the ground.

Thomas fled when the train arrived at Beckenham Junction and later told his mother: “It's either him or me,” the jury heard.

Thomas said he acted in self-defense and that the knife used in the attack belonged to the victim.

“More like a sword”

Prosecutor Michaels Williams told the jury at the opening of the trial that Thomas boarded the train in Orpington.

He was standing next to the train doors as the train entered Shortlands and stopped exactly where the victim, aged about 20, was standing.

“There is no evidence that either man knew they would be facing each other when the train doors opened,” Williams said.

“Violence immediately broke out between the two men. The public prosecutor cannot say for sure why this happened, but there must have been a background to it. The public prosecutor does not say that it was a random attack on a stranger.”

Various witnesses initially described the altercation as a “brawl” and “back and forth,” but it quickly escalated.

When the victim was thrown to the ground, passengers first noticed the knife in Thomas' hands, Williams said.

One passenger described it as “more like a sword,” while another called it a “Rambo knife.”

Thomas repeatedly plunged the knife into the victim, pausing only once to catch his breath, Williams said.

Meanwhile, the frightened passengers, including at least one passenger, were trapped and had no way to escape the stabbing.

“He decided to stay and repeatedly stabbed [the victim] over and over again. The passengers screamed at him to stop, he ignored them and continued the attack,” Williams said.

“It was either him or me”

After Thomas escaped from the train upon arrival at Beckenham Junction station, passengers took the victim to a bench on the platform where a recently retired surgeon administered first aid.

Paramedics who arrived within 15 minutes said his wounds were too numerous to count, including a chest wound that resulted in a fractured sternum.

He was taken to hospital where he underwent life-saving surgery.

Mr Williams claimed the victim survived despite the best efforts of Thomas, who had intended to murder him.

The victim refused to make a statement to the police.

Meanwhile, Thomas was being chased by two train passengers until he managed to shake them off by jumping over a fence.

He threw away the knife and walked to Elmers End, where he persuaded two women to let him into their taxi, Williams said.

They realized something was wrong halfway through the trip when they saw blood on his legs and heard his phone conversations.

“Don’t say that, Mom. It was either him or me,” he is said to have said.

In a conversation with another person, he is said to have said: “I disarmed him. He is finished. He is finished.”

When Thomas was arrested the following day, he told police the victim stabbed him in 2020 or 2021.

Thomas said the knife was in the other man's waistband, but he managed to grab it when the victim reached for it.

He said he panicked and was only thinking about not getting stabbed himself. He blacked out and did not know how many times he stabbed the victim.

He denies the charge of attempted murder as well as the alternative charge of wounding with intent and assault – which relates to the fear he caused other passengers.