Christopher Haughton told Old Bailey he lashed out in self-defence

A knifeman accused of trying to murder four police officers in Kingsbury told jurors he feared he was going to be killed in a racist attack.

The Old Bailey heard Christopher Haughton, 33, of Milford Gardens, Wembley, left three constables with potentially fatal injuries after slashing them with a meat cleaver in a butcher’s shop in Kingsbury High Road, on November 19 last year.

Houghton had taken a taxi to Kingsbury where he was seen flailing his arms in the air and chanting Psalms, the court heard.

He told how two police officers then approached him to try and calm him down and he feared they would kill him in a racist attack.

He said: “The way he was coming at me, they just wanted to do me over, like he wanted to kill me. It was like I was in a dream.

“I remember getting hit with the baton, I got loose and I ran into a shop and picked up some cans.”

Haughton claimed that a police car sped toward him to run him over so he ran over to the butcher’s shop to get a knife.

He added: “I never knew what to do, like I was in a trance. I remember using the knife on one of them but I don’t remember the other two.

“They were trying to kill me.”

Haughton denies assault causing actual bodily harm to Pc Alison Spruce in an earlier attack in Streatham on October 9, and also denies the attempted murder of Pcs Thomas Harding, Alastair Hinchliff, Andrew Robb and Sham Haque and alternative counts of wounding each with intent.

He further denies causing actual bodily harm to Pcs John Charlton and Barker, and attempting to cause grievous bodily harm to Sgt David Weir.

The trial continues.