Tube brawl witness reveals man DUMPED toddler on floor so he could join in vicious fight
The vicious scrap erupted around 5.24pm on July 17 at the entrance to Highbury and Islington Station.
5
5
5
Stunned bystanders watched as suited men clashed violently with another passenger.
To the horror of passersby, one of the men reportedly left his baby on the floor just moments before.
Video footage shows the terrifying moment a group of men start violently punching and kicking one another as commuters rush to get out of the way.
Three men in formal clothes appear to aggressively push a man with headphones down the steps.
A witness told MailOnline that a suited man was holding a young child aged around two.
She said: "When things started to get a little more heated, the child was dropped and landed on the ground."
The witness said that the child's mother rushed to help, but didn't notice the pram she was holding had started rolling away.
"The mum was so focused on the child that had been dropped, she did not notice the pram she had been holding onto began to roll, because there's an incline right by the stairs," she continued.
"This was actually the first fight I've ever witnessed. My heart was racing."
She said she was scared that one of the men would fall on her or slip down the stairs.
Both the youngster and the mother who rushed to pick them up were crying, according to the witness.
Thankfully, she said her mother grabbed onto the runaway pram before it rolled down the steps, potentially putting another child in danger.
Shocking moment sunbathers erupt into huge brawl on Brit beach for the SECOND time in a week as punches thrown on sand
The man who dropped the tot was left with a bloody eye and a large bruise on his forehead after being involved in the brawl.
Witnesses claimed the suited men involved looked drunk and were 'very aggravated' as the fight spiralled out of control.
A suited man who ran up the stairs was seen stomping on the head of the grey tracksuit-wearing man in the clip.
Another commuter coming down the stairs tries to pull him away before another man intervenes, with the pair managing to restrain him from the attack.
Two women, believed to be connected to the suited men, tried to calm them down but were ignored.
One was heard pleading: 'Calm down. You don't want to cause a scene.'
The man who was targeted by the three men fled the stairwell as the suited group continued onto the platform and boarded a train.
A shaken witness gave a description of the attackers to a TfL worker, who said the man with headphones had returned to collect them but left before police arrived.
The woman, who was with her mum, said: 'It was the first fight I've ever seen. My heart was racing.'
She feared someone could fall on her or be seriously hurt as the scuffle unfolded right in front of her.
British Transport Police confirmed they are checking the footage of the fight.
No arrests have yet been made and investigations are ongoing and British Transport Police hasn't yet released further details of the incident.
The force said in a statement on Friday: "Officers received a report of a fight at Highbury and Islington Underground station at around 5.30pm yesterday.
'Officers are aware of footage circulating on social media, and the incident is currently being investigated.'
Anyone with information is asked to text 61016 with reference 558 of 17 July.
Comments on the video expressed concern for the toddler who had been left sitting on the floor throughout the ordeal.
One wrote: "Crazy, that poor kid could have been trampled."
Another said: "Odd that no one is picking up that baby and he is at risk of that whole nest of violence falling down upon him, and they'd most probably carry on brawling on top of him."
A comment reads: "This is just awful. That poor little boy on the floor. I do hope he's ok."
Metropolitan Police said that the incident was being handled by British Transport Police as the incident took place inside the station.
5
5
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
9 minutes ago
- The Sun
Five guilty of stabbing Leonardo Reid, 15, to death in double murder during rap video shoot after teen mistook for rival
A VIOLENT criminal due to be deported nine years ago was yesterday convicted of a double murder. Jason Furtado, 28, was one of five men found guilty of murdering 15-year-old Leonardo Reid and 23-year-old Shekaj Slevi after mistaking them as rival gang members. 10 10 10 The victims were stabbed to death when Furtado's gang attacked a group of around 40 people watching a rap video shoot on an estate in Islington, North London. It can now be revealed how the Home Office first tried to deport Portuguese national Furtado in February 2016 but he launched at least two appeals to avoid eviction from the UK. The prolific criminal carried on his crime spree while appealing his deportation notice, carrying out vicious robberies and almost killing four people. He was jailed for four years in 2017 after crashing a stolen car into a group of people outside an Islington pub, leaving three men and a woman with life-threatening injuries. But even then, Furtado, whose parents are from Angolan and claimed asylum in the UK three months before he was born, still avoided deportation. An immigration appeal panel ruled he was entitled to the highest 'imperative' level of protection from deportation because he had been resident in the UK for more than 10 years. He and Kosovan co-defendant Lorik Lupqi, 21, were both on electronic tags when they took part in the June 2023 murders of Leonardo and Shekaj. Lupqi fled back to Kosovo after the attacks and was extradited to the UK in November last year. His brother Dior Lupqi is already serving a life sentence for an Islington gang murder. Dior was only 15 when he stabbed Nashon Esbrand, 27, to death in August 2017 and was given a minimum 12-year tariff. It can also be reported that a third defendant convicted yesterday, Abel Chunda, 29, has 97 previous convictions for offences including robbery, assault and possessing knives. Eden Clark, 31, and Xavier Poponne, 22, were also both convicted of two counts of murder. In addition, the infamous five were convicted of attempting to murder Abdulla Abdullahi, 28, who was also stabbed in the attack. The defendants - all from North London - had fought among themselves in the dock during the 15-week trial. 10 10 Detective Inspector Jim Barry of Specialist Crime North said 'These violent men went into this estate with the intention of killing anyone they could, under the false impression that those there were rival gang members. "This was a senseless, violent act which has shattered the lives of so many, especially Leonardo and Klevi's loved ones.' The horror double murder unfolded on Thursday, 29 June 2023. There had been a large gathering on the Elthorne estate to film a rap music video, the Met Police said. Lupqi, a gang member from Islington, spotted the group at around 8:30pm. He messaged his girlfriend stating that 'opps were outside.' She urged him to stay inside, but Lupqi decided to message his close friend and gang associate Jason Furtado. They planned to meet up with three other gang members and go to the Elthorne estate. When they arrived, most people had gone, but a couple of local youngsters were still kicking about. The gang thugs then fatally stabbed 15-year-old Leonardo Reid, who sadly died at the scene and 23-year-old Klevi Shekaj who died in hospital. They also stabbed another man, who was taken to hospital. Met Police's Specialist Crime Command launched a double murder and attempted murder investigation. Enquiries found the gang had contacted each other through 50 short phone calls in the two hours leading up to the attack. After the brutal stabbing, the four went to Abel Chunda's house and called organiser Furtado. Chuna and Furtado were arrested on July 3. Clarke had fled to the Suffolk coast and tried to disguise himself, but Met Officers located and detained him on July 12. Lupqi illegally travelled to Kosovo days after the murders and told his girlfriend not to wait for him. The force worked with the Kosovan authorities, the National Crime Agency as well as the CPS, to extradite him to the UK. Officers cuffed him at Luton Airport on 12 November 2024. After Poponne's arrest in November 2023, lyrics were found in a drill song written the day after the murders. The disgusting words had glorified the murders and made references to elements of the attack which could only be known to those involved. The lyrics highlighted how Leonardo and Klevi were not involved in gang criminality. Shortly after the murders, Poponne also changed his social media name to 'X3' referencing the number of people he had stabbed. The group denied murder throughout their trial. They all appeared at the Old Bailey on Wednesday, 23 July where they were all convicted of two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. Detective Inspector Jim Barry added: 'Our team have remained focused on getting justice for those affected by this violent and unnecessary attack. 'This dangerous group of men will now spend a long time behind bars but the effect of what they did will be felt by the victim's shattered families for longer. 'I thank the members of the public who tried to help and save the lives of those injured and have assisted our team with enquiries. 'We will continue to tackle violent offenders and ensure that justice is bought for the safety of our communities.' Sentencing was adjourned until 25 September when they will face mandatory life sentences Detective Inspector Jim Barry of Specialist Crime North said 'These violent men went into this estate with the intention of killing anyone they could, under the false impression that those there were rival gang members. 'This was a senseless, violent act which has shattered the lives of so many, especially Leonardo and Klevi's loved ones.' 10 10 10
The Guardian
9 minutes ago
- The Guardian
City trader case always had a whiff of scapegoating
Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, the two City traders whose convictions for manipulating a key benchmark interest rate were quashed on Wednesday by the supreme court, were made 'scapegoats for the sins that led to the financial crisis', says Sir David Davis, the campaigning MP. It is impossible to disagree. And Davis is right that this 'major scandal' ought to prompt questions about how the traders' cases were prosecuted by the Serious Fraud Office and why it took so long for their convictions to be overturned. There has been a weirdness about these cases from day one. Hayes, a former UBS and Citigroup trader, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for conspiracy to defraud, the sort of sentence you might get for armed robbery. Hayes's alleged crime was the rather more technical one of encouraging his employer to make a dishonest submission in answer to this question: 'At what rate could the bank borrow funds by asking for and accepting inter-bank offers in a reasonable market size just prior to 11am?' Welcome to the world of Libor, or London inter-bank offered rate. The benchmark is now discontinued but it was used to reflect the rates at which banks could borrow from each other. A panel of 16 banks made submissions and an average was taken to set the benchmark daily. It exploded into public prominence during the financial crisis because the health of banks – as judged by their willingness to lend to each other – became a matter of huge public concern. As banks coughed up huge sums in settlements with regulators for Libor-rigging, as it became known, there was political appetite for prosecutions of individuals. Manipulating Libor came to be seen as the epitome of banks' and bankers' deviousness, even though, in truth, the benchmark had little to do with the source of the financial crisis – and even though individual traders tended to protest that their behaviour was well known to their bosses. But it must have seemed an easy thing to prosecute, not least because Hayes himself had admitted to the SFO over 80 hours of interviews that he had tried to influence Libor submitters to put forward numbers that would advantage his trading positions. The problem was the direction given to the jury in his trial. This is the critical passage in the supreme court ruling: 'It was wrong for the judge to direct the jury that, if the submitter took any account of the commercial interests of the bank or a trader, the rate submitted was for that reason not a genuine or honest answer to the question posed by the [Libor] definitions as a matter of law.' Palombo's trial was compromised similarly. The supreme court still said there was 'ample evidence' that could have led the jury to a guilty verdict for Hayes. But – critically – the judge's errors in direction 'were sufficiently material to make the conviction unsafe'. The troubling aspect is that Hayes's lawyers have been making the central point about misdirection for years. The court of appeal, however, dismissed appeals twice. The case made it to the supreme court only after US courts in 2022 decided two other Libor cases differently, saying there was 'no prohibition' on taking commercial considerations into account when making submissions. Charges against Hayes were dropped in the US. As Davis said at the time, the UK became 'an outlier'. Seven other Libor convictions in the UK now look likely to be challenged. If they, too, are overthrown little will be left of the SFO's post-financial crisis pursuit of traders. Davis referred to what he called a 'scapegoating exercise' that happened as a result of alleged collusion between the banks and government agencies, including the SFO and the Financial Conduct Authority. There has always been a whiff here of the authorities going after relatively lowly, if well-remunerated, traders such as Hayes and Palombo to satisfy a political wish for scalps. Hayes's legal team called for a public inquiry and for the SFO, which has powers to act as both investigator and prosecutor, to be abolished. One suspects neither will happen, although the former would add greatly to public understanding of what happened during the financial crisis. But one hopes that this prod will be acted upon because it came from the supreme court itself: 'The history of these two cases raises concerns about the effectiveness of the criminal appeal system in England and Wales in confronting legal error.' You bet it does.
The Sun
39 minutes ago
- The Sun
Chilling moment phone snatcher leaps from car & stabs aristocrat's footballer grandson to death in savage robbery
THIS is the chilling moment a phone thief jumped from a car and stabbed an aristocrat's footballer grandson to death. Shocking CCTV footage showed Oguzcan Dereli, 27, pull up next to his victim on October 18 last year. 7 7 7 Abdul-Latif Pouget, 20, had been sitting on a moped near Farringdon station, in London, before the brutal attack at around 9.30pm. Dereli can be seen leaping out of a blue Ford Focus estate armed with a machete. Pouget attempts to ride away but Dereli knocks him off his bike and knifes him multiple times. The victim, known as Abz, was in critical condition for three days before he sadly succumbed to his injuries. The horror had taken just 13 seconds to unfold. Abz was the grandson of Baron Bouget, and his great-grandfather had been banker George de Vere Drummond, godson of King George VI. The Pouget family also has links to Chateau Pouget, a winery in the Margaux appellation of Bordeaux, France. The 20-year-old was a talented footballer and played on the left wing for Zaza FC in the Barnet Sunday Football League, the Old Bailey heard. Cannabis dealer Dereli denied murder but was today found guilty by a jury. The conviction is the latest on a long list, with 39 previous on his criminal record. He was sentenced to 18 months in 2018 for a string of phone thefts in London. Abz's brother Badruddin, delivered a moving victim impact statement in court. He addressed the defendant in the dock and said: "Mr Dereli, when Abz was nine you had your first conviction. "When Abz was collecting medals you were collecting bank cards and snatching phones from strangers. You were caught hiding under a mattress." 7 7 7 The heartbroken brother described his beloved sibling as "a young man who, unlike you, was loved for who he was, not feared for what he might do." "I hope that justice might speak for Abz now since you never let him speak again," he added. The victim's devastated mother, Kawsar Pouget, also paid tribute to her "kind, respectful, polite and humble" son. "He was a talented and gifted footballer who was a role model to those younger than him. He was young intelligent and full of promise," she added. "He bought warmth and laughter to every room. His murder shattered the natural order of things and has broken something deep within us. "Every member of the family carries this loss. Our family gatherings now taken place at the graveside." Prosecutors argued Dereli had been trying to steal Abz's phone at the time. But the defendant told the court his victim had wrongly accused him of robbery and he was acting in self-defence after a confrontation ensued. Prosecuting, Danny Robinson, told the court Abz was still sat on his moped when Dereli came at him with a machete. "He struck him with the machete and then stabbed him with it to his right thigh. The stab wound severed an artery causing instant massive blood loss and Mr Pouget collapsed on the pavement," he told the court. Abz tragically died in hospital three days later at 11.15am on October 21. Police detained Dereli at the Easy Hotel on October 19, where he was staying with a woman. The court heard his girlfriend had given birth shortly before the murder, but Dereli had not met his baby because he was "scared". Cops were unable to locate the murder weapon but arrested Dereli on October 20. The court heard his family of eleven were Kurdish asylum seekers who all lived in a three bedroomed council flat. His father was unemployed and his mother was too ill to work. Dereli, of Alexander Road, Holloway, denied but was convicted of murder and having an offensive weapon. Judge Sarah Whitehouse said upon sentencing: "I am not satisfied this was a murder carried out in the circumstances of a robbery. "We shall probably never know why you decided to get out of your car and run over and stab Mr Pouget." But the judge added there had been rumours of a disagreement over a debt. "Some of the rumours were that you and Mr Pouget had an altercation that very evening in which he had got the better of you and your friends had encouraged you to go out and seek revenge," continued the judge. "I am satisfied you had formed the intention to cause him really serious bodily harm when you stopped and got out of your car at speed, carrying that machete. "Your actions caused incalculable distress to Abdul-Latif Pouget's family." Detective Chief Inspector Lucie Card, who led the Met's investigation, said: "My thoughts and that of my team remain with Abdul's family, a much loved brother, friend and neighbour. "A young man has tragically died in a senseless and brutal way. I can only hope that this sentence can go some way in providing a sense of justice to Abdul's family." 7
