Jurors shown CCTV footage of fake 999 caller attacking police officers with kitchen knife

These dramatic images show the moment a university drop-out who had made a fake 999 call pulled out a kitchen knife and attacked four police officers.

The CCTV footage was played in court at the trial of Alex Traykov, 20, who denies four charges of attempted murder, and three alternative charges of wounding with intent and one of attempted wounding with intent.

Traykov, of Redhill, Surrey, dialled 999 on the evening of October 6 last year, using the alias ‘Solomon’ to report a fictitious fight in Islington, north London.

When police arrived, he produced a knife and attacked the officers, the Old Bailey heard.

Bulgarian-born Traykov admitted making the fake call as a “prank” as well as hurting the officers, but denies trying to kill or seriously injure them.

He told the court he had smoked cannabis beforehand but it had had a “very different” effect to the “normal high” he had experienced before.

He claimed that before the police arrived, he was toasting crumpets and was still holding the knife he had used to cut them up.

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Traykov allegedly attacked Pc Istarlin Said-Ali, 31, first before running at the other officers, inflicting a 4cm cut to Pc Rafal Zedziora’s face then wounding 40-year-old Pc Ben Thomson’s arm before being tasered twice by Pc Launa Watkins.

The court heard Traykov, who was visiting a college friend at the address in Islington at the time of the incident, had had contact with police three times before for having a cannabis joint and shoplifting, but he insisted he held no grudge against them.

The former Winchester University history student told the court he had previously suffered from depression and anxiety and dropped out of university to pursue a music career, to his mother’s “disappointment”.

He told jurors: “I have felt terrible since I came to prison and I have thought about it every day, tried to reason and live with it.

“I thought about the officers, how they were injured, and now I have seen them in court it’s ten times worse for me. I have had problems sleeping and whatnot as well.”

But cross-examining Traykov, Duncan Atkinson QC said: “So you have still got the big knife in your hand rather than the one you have used last to put the jam on.

“You brought it into the hall although you did not need it and you put on shoes still holding the knife and it is at that point the buzzer goes?

“In less than three minutes you have forgotten you have called police in the first place and although you knew that you should not be in the address when the police arrive you had taken no steps by the time they arrived to leave, apart from putting shoes on.

“It did not happen like that, did it?

“You called police because you wanted them to arrive quickly and they did and when they arrived you were in the hall waiting for them.”

The case continues.