Terrified mother barricaded her children in the waiting room after what the man did at the station

A professional footballer’s father left his victim with blood pouring from his hand after an argument over a bag left on a chair

A terrified mother barricaded her children in a waiting room when a knife attack took place at a train station. Ronald Whelan left a fellow passenger with blood pouring from his hand after brandishing the gun after arguing about the other man leaving his bag on a seat.

The grandfather, whose son is a professional footballer, said the incident was the “biggest mistake he ever made”. One eyewitness, meanwhile, fled in panic with her young daughters in a pram before helping the victim to staunch his bleeding with her scarf.

Liverpool Crown Court learned this week that Muhammed Uddin boarded a Southport-bound service on Liverpool South Parkway shortly after 1pm on August 2 this year, intending to travel to Blundellsands And Crosby Station. He was sitting with his bag next to him on a vacant seat when Whelan entered the train, at which point “words were exchanged about the bag on the seat”.

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CCTV footage showed him taking a seat next to the complainant, who then moved to another part of the carriage after apparently calling the 59-year-old a “son of a bitch”. The defendant, who had no fixed address, then left Blundellsands and Crosby, before Mr Uddin.

Philip Clemo, prosecuting, described how Whelan was then seen passing through a gate just in front of his victim, before pulling a knife from his pocket and turning to make a “lunging motion” towards him. The complainant responded by grabbing the six-inch knife, leaving a cut on his hand.

The court also heard that another passenger, Megan Rimmer, “barricaded herself and her two babies in a waiting room until she was sure the defendant was gone” before going to Mr Uddin’s aid and helping to stop his bleeding. Mr Clemo said the altercation ‘took place in the shadows of the Southport murders” just a few days earlier and had caused “significant problems.”

Mrs. Rimmer The ECHO said this earlier: “I was on the train back from the city with my two little girls aged five and three. When you get off there is a little gate at the car park where there is a little pinch point if it’s quite busy. As they said there was no argument, nothing happened, he just turned around and lunged at him with a knife.

“Mohammed reached out his hand, so the knife went into his hand and there was blood everywhere. He just started shouting ‘he has a knife, he has a knife’. I just turned around the stroller with my daughters in it and went inside. into the waiting room, pushed them into the waiting room and stood barricaded opposite the door in case the knifeman came that way, but he didn’t.

“There was no altercation whatsoever during the run-up. Mohammed was in shock afterwards. I didn’t see anything. They just went through the same gate and the white man just turned around and charged at him with a knife.

“By the time I got my girls into the waiting room and made sure the guy with the knife didn’t get near them, everyone else had just left. There was one girl who stayed in the waiting room but didn’t go for a few minutes around, but everyone else just left.

“He 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 it off and wrapped it around his hand and told him that he had to do that.” squeeze it to try to stop the bleeding. He immediately called 999. To be honest, I was very shocked by it, and just sad and scared. I didn’t expect that in their environment. “

In a statement read to the court on his behalf, Mr Uddin explained how he had suffered from sleep problems and nightmares since the attack. He also outlined how he was forced to quit his job due to his new fear of taking public transport, adding: ‘I keep replaying the attack in my mind over and over again.

“I find myself thinking about it all the time. I’m afraid the flashbacks will never go away and it’s something I’ll have to put up with.”

Whelan was arrested five days after the attack when he entered a gym. This led to him being alerted to the NCA for being “a wanted man in France in connection with the importation of over 100kg of high-purity cocaine from Colombia”.

After being released from custody, having been on remand since the attack, it is expected he will be remanded in custody and brought before Westminster Magistrates’ Court to face extradition proceedings. Whelan claims he “felt threatened” by the victim.

Louise Santamera, defending, told the court 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 mumbles at him. He maintains that he did what he did to frighten the complainant. He did not want to harm him.”

Ms Santamera added on Mr Uddin’s behavior on the train: “He was seen by others making offensive comments. The defendant does not respond to this. I see the complainant look at the defendant several times.

“The defendant has said to me that this is the worst mistake he has made. He accepts that he misjudged the situation and makes no excuses for his behavior that day.”

Whelan admitted wounding without intent and possessing a bladed article in a public place. Wearing a light gray fleece and sporting gray hair in the dock on Monday, he was given 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 very fortunate for you that he was not further injured. There is no suggestion at all that he threatened you. However, I accept that you felt threatened by his presence and the fact that he was close to you.

“That is why you pulled the knife and acted as seen on CCTV. That’s not an excuse for what you did, but it’s an explanation. I take into account your age and the fact that you no longer have any problems.” I have been in law enforcement for about forty years. It is extremely sad to see you back in court all these years later.”