Train passengers including a child watched in horror as a teen repeatedly stabbed a man with a sword-like knife, a court heard. 

Rakeem Thomas, 19, is on trial for attempted murder after a viral video showed him knifing a man onboard a train between Shortlands and Beckenham Junction station. 

In the three-minute journey between the stations terrified passengers saw a chance-encounter between the two men escalate into a life-threatening stabbing, the jury heard. 

A woman screamed “f***ing stop it” as Thomas continued to stab the victim as he lay on the ground. 

Thomas fled when the train arrived at Beckenham Junction and later told his mum “it was either him or me”, the jury heard. 

Thomas said he acted in self-defence and that the knife used in the attack belonged to the victim. 

‘More like a sword’ 

Prosecutor Michaels Williams, opening the trial, told the jury Thomas boarded the train at Orpington. 

He was standing by the train doors when it pulled into Shortlands and stopped at the exact spot where the victim, aged in his 20s, was standing. 

“There is no evidence that either male knew they were going to come face-to-face with one another as the train doors opened,” Mr Williams said. 

“Immediately violence started between the two men. The reason the prosecution cannot be sure, undoubtedly there must have been a background to this. The prosecution does not say this was a random attack on a stranger.” 

Various witnesses initially described the fight as “ruffling about” and “back and forth” but it escalated quickly. 

It was when the victim was thrown to the floor that passengers first noticed the knife in Thomas’ hands, Mr Williams said. 

One passenger described it as “more like a sword” while another described it as a “Rambo knife”. 

Thomas repeatedly plunged the knife into the victim and only paused once so he could catch his breath, Mr Williams said. 

Meanwhile the terrified passengers, including at least one child, were trapped with no route to get away from the knife-fight. 

“He chose to remain and repeatedly stab [the victim] over and over again. Passengers were screaming at him to stop, he ignored them and he continued the attack,” Mr Williams said. 

'It was either him or me'

After Thomas fled the train when it arrived at Beckenham Junction station, passengers took the victim to a platform bench where a recently retired surgeon gave him first aid. 

Paramedics who arrived within 15 minutes said his wounds were too numerous to count. They included a chest wound which had fractured his breast bone. 

He was rushed to hospital where he underwent life-saving surgery. 

Mr Williams alleged that the victim survived despite the best efforts of Thomas, who had intended to murder him. 

The victim refused to give a statement to police. 

Meanwhile, Thomas was pursued by two of the train passengers until he managed to lose them when he jumped over a fence. 

He dumped the knife and went to Elmers End where he convinced two females to let him in their taxi, Mr Williams said. 

They noticed something was wrong mid-journey when they saw blood on him and heard his phone conversations. 

"Don’t say that mum, it was either him or me,” he is reported to have said. 

In conversation with another person he’s reported to have said: “I disarmed him. He’s done. He’s finished.” 

When Thomas was arrested the following day he told police the victim had stabbed him in 2020 or 2021. 

Thomas said the knife was in the other man’s waistband, but he managed to grab it as the victim reached for it. 

He said he panicked and was only thinking about not getting stabbed himself, adding that he blacked out and didn’t know how many times he stabbed the victim. 

He denies attempted murder, as well as an alternative charge of wounding with intent and affray – which relates to the fear he caused to other passengers.