UK: 11-year-old girl stabbed 8 times in tourist spot, Romanian attacker disarmed by security guard of Pakistani descent

Tara Cobham
Independent
Wed, 14 Aug 2024 17:59 UTC

This is the moment the suspect was arrested
@oli_congress

A man has appeared in court charged with attempted murder after an 11-year-old girl was stabbed in Leicester Square.

Ioan Pintaru was also charged with possession of a bladed article early on Tuesday and was remanded in custody.

The 32-year-old appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court later on Tuesday morning, wearing a grey prison-issue sweatshirt.

The court heard Pintaru, of no fixed address, is a Romanian citizen, and the charges were read to him through an interpreter during the 10-minute hearing.

Prosecutor David Burns said the girl and her mother were in Leicester Square as tourists when the child was stabbed eight times with a steak knife, leaving her with wounds to the face, neck, shoulder and wrist.

He added: "In relation to the complainant - she was taken to hospital and she currently resides in hospital where she's undergoing treatment. I understand that she required plastic surgery for the injuries she sustained."

The Metropolitan Police were alerted to an incident at the central London tourist hotspot at around 11.30am on Monday morning.

The 11-year-old victim was found with stab wounds near the TWG Tea shop, which is beside the Lego and M&M stores.

She was rushed to hospital, where her injuries were assessed as serious but not life-threatening.

It was initially believed that the girl's mother, a 34-year-old woman, was also hurt, however, it was later confirmed that blood from her daughter's injuries had been mistaken for injuries of her own.

Detective Chief Superintendent Christina Jessah said: "This is a horrific incident and our thoughts are with the victims and their family. We will continue to provide support to them over the coming days and weeks.

"I would like to pay tribute to the members of the public, including staff from local businesses, who bravely intervened in this incident. They put themselves at risk and showed the best of London in doing so."

Pintaru was remanded in custody and will next appear at the Old Bailey on 10 September.

Comment: The Standard reports:

A security guard has told how he "jumped on" and took a knife from the knifeman.

The guard, who gave his name as Abdullah, 29, said he had worked in security at the TWG Tea shop for the past "seven to eight months".

"I heard a scream, at that moment I saw there was one person, roughly mid-30s or early 30s, and he was like stabbing a kid - I jumped on him, held the hand in which he was (carrying) a knife, and just put him down on the floor and just held him and took the knife away from him," he said.

"Then a couple of more people joined as well, and we just held him until the police came, it took maybe three to four minutes for the police to arrive and then they just took him into custody."

He and his colleagues gave first aid to the child before the police joined in, he said.

"I just saw a kid getting stabbed and I just tried to save her. It's my duty to just save them," he added.

The square and the surrounding area have an estimated 2.5 million visitors every week and are home to shops, theatres, cinemas and restaurants.

Footage:

With the near week of riots that followed the stabbing of 3 young girls, the atmosphere in the UK has certainly been tense. Also, judging by the bizarre happenings with the Queen's guard's horses, there are signs that something has been 'in the air' for a while now.

Notably, whilst this attacker is clearly an unstable, susceptible person, perhaps even a copy cat criminal, the heroes of the day rather serendipitously undermine the establishment's divide and conquer tactics:

• UK gov't to 'scatter' migrants around country instead of holding them at secure hotels and military sites
• UK's military horses bolt through London AGAIN, regiment source says frequency of spooking incidents is unprecedented
• Protests erupt across the UK with 4th day of unrest, gov't ignores public concerns and threatens draconian crackdown
• 17-year-old kills 3 children in frenzied knife attack at family centre in Southport, UK - 6 more wounded