Train passenger stabbed after row about bag on empty seat
A man was stabbed and left with blood pouring from his hand after an argument over his bag being left on a train seat.
The incident left one mum and her children so terrified that she was forced to barricade them inside a railway station waiting room.
It all unfolded when Muhammed Uddin entered a Southport-bound service at Liverpool South Parkway shortly after 1pm on August 2.
Mr Uddin was sitting down with his bag on the seat next to him when a short time later Ronald Whelan, 59, got on.
Liverpool Crown Court heard how at this point ‘words were exchanged about the bag on the seat’ between the two men.
Mr Uddin then moved further down the carriage away from Whelan after allegedly calling Whelan a ‘d***head.’
The pair then left the train at at Blundellsands and Crosby before Whelan whisked out a knife and made a ‘lunging motion’ towards Mr Uddin.
Mr Uddin grabbed hold of the blade, which caused his hand to start bleeding.
Seeing everything that was unfolding at the train station, the mum, Megan Rimmer, barricaded herself and her two children in the waiting room until Whelan had left.
Once Whelan had left, she went to help Mr Uddin by wrapping a scarf around his hand to stop the bleeding.
Whelan was arrested five days later and is also wanted in France in relation to the importation of over 100kg of high purity cocaine from Colombia.
Megan told the Liverpool Echo: ‘He just turned round and lunged at him with a knife.
‘Muhammed put his hand out, so the knife went into his hand and there was just blood everywhere. He just started shouting ‘he’s got a knife, he’s got a knife’.
‘I just turned round the pram with my daughters in, went into the waiting room, shoved them into the waiting room and stood barricaded across the door in case the knife guy came that way, but he didn’t.
‘There wasn’t any altercation in the build up. Muhammed was in shock afterwards. I didn’t see anything.
‘By the time I’d put my girls into the waiting room and made sure the guy with the knife was going nowhere near them, everyone else had just cleared off.
‘He was just stood there with blood pouring out of his hand. It looked really bad and there was blood everywhere.
‘I had a keffiyeh scarf on my head, so I took that one off and wrapped it round his hand and was telling him to squeeze it to try and stop the bleeding. He called 999 straightaway.’
It was described to the court in a statement how Mr Uddin keeps replaying the attack over in his mind.
The statement said: ‘I find myself thinking about it constantly. I fear that the flashbacks will never go away and it is something I will have to put up with.’
Louise Santamera, defending, said Whelan is a married father-of-two with one grandchild and one of his sons is a professional footballer and that Mr Uddin made offensive remarks.
Whelan admitted wounding without intent and possession of a bladed article in a public place.
He was handed a 15-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months plus 150 hours of unpaid work and a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 25 days.
Sentencing, Recorder Ben Douglas-Jones KC said: ‘It is most fortunate for you that he was not injured further.
‘There is no suggestion at all that he was threatening you.
‘However, I accept that you felt threatened by his presence and the fact that he was close to you.
‘That is why you drew the knife and acted in the way that is seen on CCTV. That is no excuse for what you did, but it is an explanation.
‘I bear in mind your age and the fact that you have been out of trouble with the police for 40 years or so.
‘It is extremely sad to see you back before the court all these years later.’
Whelan has been released from custody but is expected at Westminster Magistrates Court in order to face extradition proceedings.
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