'It's everyone's nightmare': Victim of machete-wielding 'Terminator' knifeman recounts harrowing attack on the Tube
29 October 2022, 13:04
The victim of a machete-wielding knifeman has recounted the harrowing attack on the London Underground, saying it is "everyone's nightmare".
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James Porritt, 42, was attacked on a crowded Jubilee Line train in July 2021, likened during the trial to the Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi film Terminator.
Now, after 15 months and a court case that saw Ricky Morgan, then 35, jailed for life for attempted murder, Mr Porritt has shared his memory of the harrowing incident for the first time.
He told the Mail Online he had been going to meet his girlfriend and her father when Morgan boarded the carriage.
As the train pulled away from Green Park station, Morgan leapt to his feet, pulling the machete out his bag, and began the brutal attack.
Mr Porritt said he did not feel pain at first as the blows rained down on his head.
Read more: Man guilty of random 'Terminator' tube attack after hacking commuter with machete
"It all happened so fast," he told the paper.
When he put his hands to his head to try and protect himself, the machete's blade cut off the tip of his thumb and left his little finger "hanging off".
"He was hacking away through the flesh, the nerves, the tendon and the bone on the palm," Mr Porritt recalled.
He said he begged his attacker to stop, but to no avail.
Mr Porritt says he has no memory of running through the carriage but CCTV showed he did, at one point falling into a group of passengers whilst Morgan hacked at his shin.
Then one passenger bravely ran towards the attacker, temporarily blocking him and buying Mr Porritt crucial time to run.
"Although how I ran I don't know, as my leg was almost useless," he said.
Morgan chased Mr Porritt through two carriages, with another two passengers attempting to intervene and putting more distance between him and his pursuer.
When he reached the final carriage before the driver's compartment, passengers barricaded the door with luggage as as fell to the floor.
CCTV released of Ricky Morgan’s attempted murder of stranger in machete attack on Tube
A doctor who happened to be there tried to control Mr Porritt's bleeding whilst Morgan continued to thrust the machete through the window from the previous carriage.
"He was pointing at me and said again: 'I don't want any of you, I just want him'," Mr Porritt told the Daily Mail.
"He didn't look human... it was utterly terrifying."
Thirty minutes later British Transport Police officers boarded from another train and arrested Morgan, who did not resist.
Mr Porritt was taken to St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, where he underwent a 12-hour surgery as doctors battled to save his right hand.
He had a total of around 140 stitches, he said.
Mr Porritt is still feeling the emotional and physical effects of the attack over a year on.
He told the Mail his right hand is of little use. He cannot drive or dress himself and is registered disabled.
"I can't even told my girlfriend's hand as it hurts too much," he said.
He suffers from seizures, nightmares, flashbacks and uncontrollable bouts of anger, and has contemplated suicide.
The thing he has particularly struggled to come to terms with is that the attack was random.
"Morgan had been traversing the Underground network for three weeks prior to his attack on me, armed with his machete and a bottle of vodka," he said.
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"He didn't attack anyone and then all of a sudden the fire was lit — boom —and I was that person.
"It's everyone's nightmare."
Despite his struggles he said he knows he is lucky.
"When I saw the footage, all I could think was how the hell I walked away from it," he said.
"I know I'm lucky to be alive."
