Jailed: Teenagers who left victim blind in one eye after train stabbing
Jailed... 18-year-olds Smith-Williams and accomplice Gabriel Burke-Georgiou - Credit: BTP
Three teenagers who stabbed a passenger on a busy commuter train from Liverpool Street and left him permanently blind in one eye have been jailed for a total of more than 18 years.
Jaheim Smith-Williams, an 18-year-old from Whites Row in Spitalfields, got six years and nine months.
Accomplice Gabriel Burke-Georgiou of Poynton Road in Tottenham, also 18, got the same sentence when the pair appeared at the Old Bailey on April 9, along with a 15-year-old who joined the attack who received just over five years.
All three, who police said were linked to street gangs, had admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
“This was a premediated and vicious attack on a busy train which left the victim with life-changing injuries,” Det Con Nick Barr said after the case. “It was incredibly distressing for passengers who witnessed the attack. Thankfully, incidents like this are rare on the railway.”
Passengers who witnessed the attack on the train were later thanked by British Transport Police for helping bring those responsible to justice.
The gang’s victim had been sitting with his electric scooter propped up on a northbound train leaving Northumberland Park around 7pm on September 24, when Smith-Williams lunged at him with a Rambo-style knife several times.
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Other passengers sitting nearby quickly left the carriage to get away from the incident, blocking another of the offenders - the 15-year-old - in the process. But the youth pulled out a long-bladed machete and joined in the attack.
The passenger they attacked was forced backwards down the carriage as Smith-Williams hit him with the knife several more times, leaving him on the floor with his hand over his left eye as the train pulled into the next stop at Meridian Water, where all three attackers got out.
Burke-Georgiou rode off on the victim’s scooter.
Train station where Smith-Williams and his accomplices fled after knifing a passenger - Credit: Google
The 18-year-old victim was found collapsed outside a Tesco supermarket opposite the station before being taken to hospital. He had been stabbed in his head, hand, back and shoulder—and lost his left eye as a result.
Police later found the discarded knives used to stab him while searching the area around the station the next day.
