Anthony Williams, 33, the man accused of carrying out a mass stabbing on a Doncaster to London King's Cross train on 1 November last year, has now been charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) over a separate incident weeks earlier. The new charge relates to an alleged random attack on 27 September in Peterborough, which left electrician Ricky Butcher, 36, needing 15 stitches for facial injuries. The development matters because it raises questions about whether the earlier alleged assault was properly investigated before the train attack took place.

Williams already faces ten counts of attempted murder over the train stabbings, plus three further attempted murder charges and other counts relating to separate incidents. The Independent Office for Police Conduct opened an inquiry in January after Mr Butcher complained that Cambridgeshire Police texted him just two days after the attack to say the case was being closed for lack of evidence. The watchdog has announced that two constables will face gross misconduct hearings, with one accused of failing to make proper enquiries and both allegedly concealing this by falsely claiming no CCTV existed and entering inaccurate information in a crime report.