A mother was forced to barricade her children inside a train waiting room during a terrifying stabbing attack in Liverpool.
The nightmarish incident started after Ronald Whelan, 59, asked Muhammed Uddin to move his bag off an empty seat.
Whelan, who is the father of a professional footballer, then knifed Mr Uddin in his hand as he departed the train before the heroic mother helped to stem the bleeding using her own scarf.
Now French police are also interested in speaking to Whelan over his alleged involvement in the import of over 100 kilos of cocaine from Colombia.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that Mr Uddin boarded the Merseyrail train to Southport at Liverpool South Parkway at 1pm on August 2 this year.
When Whelan entered the carriage he asked Mr Uddin to move his bag at which point ‘words were exchanged about the bag on the seat.’
The Liverpool ECHO reported that CCTV footage from the incident showed Mr Uddin move further down the carriage after allegedly calling Whelan a ‘d***head.’
Both men then departed the railway service at Blundellsands and Crosby Station. As they passed through the gate Whelan pulled a knife out of his pocket and made a ‘lunging motion’ towards Mr Uddin.
The nightmarish incident started after Ronald Whelan (pictured), 59, asked Muhammed Uddin to move his bag off an empty seat
Whelan knifed Mr Uddin in the hand during an altercation at Blundellsands and Crosby Station in north Liverpool
When Whelan boarded the carriage he asked Mr Uddin to move his bag at which point ‘words were exchanged about the bag on the seat.’ CCTV footage from the incident showed Mr Uddin move further down the carriage after allegedly calling Whelan a ‘d***head’
Philip Clemo, prosecuting, described how the complainant reacted by grabbing hold of the six-inch blade, leaving him with a cut to his hand.
Fellow passenger Megan Rimmer witnessed the altercation and reacted by ‘barricaded herself and her two babies in a waiting room until she was sure the defendant had gone.’
She then rushed to Mr Uddin aid to help stem the bleeding from his hand using her scarf.
Ms Rimmer previously told the Liverpool ECHO that rushed to the waiting room with her daughters in a pram after she heard Mr Uddin yell ‘he’s got a knife.’
She said: ‘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.’
She said she felt horrified by the incident which she didn’t expect to happen in this area.
In a statement which was read out to the court on his behalf, Mr Uddin detailed how he had suffered from sleeping difficulties and nightmares since the attack. He also outlined how he had been forced to give up his job due to his newfound fear of taking public transport, adding: ‘I keep replaying the attack over and over in my mind.
‘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.’
Whelan was arrested five days after the assault as he entered a gym. This led to him being alerted to the NCA, being a ‘wanted man in France in relation to the importation of over 100kg of high purity cocaine from Colombia’.
Upon being released from custody, having been held on remand since the assault, he is expected to be detained again and brought before Westminster Magistrates’ Court in order to face extradition proceedings. Whelan maintains that he ‘felt threatened’ by the casualty.
A Liverpool Merseyrail train (stock image). Fellow passenger Megan Rimmer witnessed the altercation and reacted by ‘barricaded herself and her two babies in a waiting room until she was sure the defendant had gone’
Whelan was handed a handed a 15-month imprisonment suspended for 18 months plus 150 hours of unpaid work and a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 25 days at Liverpool Crown Court (pictured)
Louise Santamera, defending, told the court that her client was a married father-of-two with one grandchild, with one of his sons being a professional footballer, and said: ‘He unequivocally accepts that he should not have done what he did. He found it very difficult to understand why he had followed him off the train.
‘The complainant appears at his shoulder on the platform and mutters to him.. He maintains that he did what he did to frighten to complainant away from him. He did not want to cause him any injury.’
Ms Santamera added of Mr Uddin’s behaviour on the train: ‘He was observed by others making offensive remarks. The defendant does not react to this. I observe the complainant looking across at the defendant on a number of occasions.
‘The defendant has said to me that it is the worst mistake he has made. He accepts that he misjudged the situation and makes no excuse for his behaviour that day.’
Whelan admitted wounding without intent and possession of a bladed article in a public place. Wearing a light grey fleece and sporting grey hair in the dock, he was handed a 15-month imprisonment suspended for 18 months plus 150 hours of unpaid work and a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 25 days on Monday. British Transport Police have now released his custody picture.
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.’
