At a glance
- Damson Idris’s 17-year-old nephew, Isaiah Ishmael Idris, was allegedly slashed in the face while travelling on the Docklands Light Railway in east London in the early hours of November 1.
- Anthony Williams, 32, has been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder over a mass stabbing on a Doncaster–London King’s Cross train later that same day; police are probing possible links between incidents.
- Cambridgeshire Police are reviewing earlier knife attacks in Peterborough, including one that left victim Ricky Butcher with lasting facial injuries after officers initially dropped the case.
The schoolboy nephew of British actor Damson Idris is allegedly one of the youngest victims of the Huntingdon train knife rampage suspect.
Isaiah Ishmael Idris, 17, suffered facial injuries after being slashed as he travelled on the Docklands Light Railway in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Sixth-form student Isaiah is believed to have staggered off the train at Pontoon Dock station in east London and called 999, the Daily Mail reported.
His uncle Damson, 34, is a rising Hollywood star who played Brad Pitt’s rookie team-mate Joshua Pearce in F1: The Movie, a blockbuster was based on Formula One legend James Hunt.
Anthony Williams, 32, was remanded into custody at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on Monday charged with 10 counts of attempted murder over the mass stabbing on a LNER Doncaster to London King’s Cross high-speed service forced to make an unscheduled stop at Huntingdon on Saturday night.
Isaiah is named over the incident at the DLR station at 12.46am on November 1.
The suspect, subsequently identified by British Transport Police as Williams, had left the location before officers arrived.
Another uncle, Habeeb Idris, confirmed to the Mail that his nephew was wounded.
He is quoted as saying: “I am aware that Isaiah was involved in the incident on a train, but we are dealing with this privately as a family.”
Damson was born in Peckham as the youngest of six children. His older brother Murtala Murray Idris is Isaiah’s father.
Idris’s mother Philippa, Isaiah’s grandmother, also declined to comment about her grandson’s injuries, the newspaper said.
Meanwhile, Cambridgeshire Police are reviewing whether an attack on September 27 which left a man with facial injuries is connected to a mass stabbing on a train.
Ricky Butcher was outside Fletton Club in Peterborough waiting for a taxi with a group of people when a man stabbed him.
He told the BBC he needed stitches for a cut to his mouth and his face is “numb, and probably always will be, due to the cut”.
Mr Butcher said he was “fuming” that police dropped their investigation two days later and “could have taken it more seriously – I had five witnesses with me”.
He said the force reopened his case on Monday.
In a statement on Thursday police said: “We are engaging with the victim of this assault, and the incident is part of our ongoing internal review.”
Detectives previously said the stabbing of a 14-year-old boy in Peterborough city centre the day before the train attack and two reports of a knifeman seen at a barber’s were being investigated.
