Four police officers injured after being lured by bogus 999 caller wielding large knife, court hears

Four officers were wounded ‘in an attack by a teenager wielding a large knife’, court hears (file photo)
Nigel Howard
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Four police officers were wounded after being lured out by a bogus 999 call and attacked by a knifeman in a “torrent of extreme violence”, a court heard.

The officers were expecting to break up a fight when they were sent to a home in Islington, but instead found themselves under attack from a teenager wielding a large kitchen knife, it is said.

Pc Istarlin Said Ali, 31, and Pc Rafal Kedziora, 34, were stabbed in the head, while Pc Ben Thomson, 40, was cut across his left arm. Pc Launa Watkins, 39, was left with a fractured wrist in the attack, the Old Bailey heard.

Duncan Atkinson QC, prosecuting, said the alleged attacker, Alex Traykov, had made the 999 call under a false name, claiming there was a fight in progress between two men.

He told jurors: “While the officers might have expected trouble given the nature of the call they had received, nothing could have prepared them for what in fact awaited them. Rather than seeking to break up violence against others, they were about to be subjected to extreme violence themselves.”

Mr Atkinson said the home was in semi-darkness when the officers, who were “seeking to perform their public duty to prevent crime and disorder”, arrived at around 11pm on October 6 last year. They were met at the door by Traykov, then 19, wearing a black hooded top and holding a large kitchen knife, jurors heard.

“Without hesitation and without warning and certainly without the slightest provocation from the officers, he raised his right hand and proceeded to attack the officers,” Mr Atkinson said. “He first attacked Pc Said Ali, who was nearest to him, bringing the knife down on her head and cutting her hand when she put it up to ward off a second blow.

“The defendant then ran towards the other officers and he lunged out and down from above with the knife. He brought it down on the head of a second officer, Pc Kedziora, causing a 4cm long wound to his face.

“He struck him again as Pc Kedziora turned to try and get away from the savage attack that the defendant had unleashed on him and his colleagues, cutting him to the back of his neck.

“The defendant wounded a third officer, Pc Thomson, to his arm as he continued to rain down blow after blow upon them.”

Mr Atkinson said Traykov was “acting throughout in a determined way, making a series of deliberate large movements of the knife towards the officers. He continued after them as they sought to retreat from him. He continued to stab at them after they had fallen.”

He said the officers Tasered Traykov twice, eventually managing to “tame the torrent of his extreme violence”.

Traykov, of Redhill in Surrey, answered “no comment” when interviewed by detectives, and has not offered an explanation for the alleged attack, the court heard.

He denies attempted murder and alternative charges of wounding with intent. The trial continues.

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