Driver left ‘trail of carnage’ after ‘crashing into people in fatal Christmas Day attacks’

A driver who mowed down pedestrians in a rage-fuelled attack on Christmas Day ‘intended to kill someone’, a court has heard.

Anthony Gilheaney, 30, left a ‘trail of carnage’ after mowing down pedestrians in London’s West End on Christmas Day in a series of drink-fuelled attacks.

He had left a nightclub in the early hours of the day and was ‘beside himself with rage’ when he hit five people with his car – some of whom he targeted for ‘racist and homophobic reasons’.

One of the victims, Aidan Chapman, 25, suffered fatal brain damage and died in hospital on New Year’s Eve.

Prosecutor Crispin Aylett KC said: ‘In his wake, the defendant had left a trail of carnage. It is tempting to view the defendant’s behavior as inexplicable. In truth, however, it is not.

‘It was borne out of a drink-fuelled rage that led to a racist attack on Arif Khan in Archer Street. He then targeted two men in Great Windmill Street in what the prosecution suggests was a homophobic attack.’

By the time the driver reached Shaftesbury Avenue, he was ‘completely and utterly out of control’, the Old Bailey heard.

‘He deliberately drove across the street intending to kill someone – and that is what happened,’ Aylett said.

Jurors were told Gilheaney was drunk when he left the nightclub, got into an argument with a complete stranger, punched another complete stranger and attacked a Sikh man unprovoked as he walked along Shaftesbury Avenue.

When the man went into the street to confront Gilheaney, the defendant drove forward before reversing back, knocking him to the ground.

Gilheaney got out of the car and attacked him, throwing him to the ground and kicking him, the prosecution said.

The man’s friends found him and began beating up Gilheaney, an encounter which was recorded on the dash camera of Uber driver Hasan Mashood.

‘Unbelievably, the defendant then got into his car and reversed hard into Mr Mashood’s car in yet another unprovoked attack,’ Aylett KC continued.

‘Lest there be any doubt about the defendant’s intentions, when Mr Mashood tried to reverse out of the way, the defendant rammed him a second time. The defendant, who by now appears to have been beside himself with rage, then sets his sights on pedestrians in Great Windmill Street.’

His attention was then drawn to a gay couple walking along the street, who had gone to Midnight Mass and were on the way home, holding hands.

‘As they tried to cross the road to get away from the defendant, he drove at them, and one of them was knocked to the ground.

‘The other man had not been hit but, as he bent down to tend to his partner, the defendant deliberately drove at him as well.’

Further along Shaftesbury Avenue, Adrian Chapman and his friend Tyrone Itorho, who had been on a night out in the West End, were crossing the road.

They were almost at the pavement when Gilheaney ‘suddenly careered onto the other side of the road’, jurors heard.

Mr Chapman was hit full-on by Gilheaney and suffered such massive brain damage that he never recovered, jurors heard.

Jurors heard that six people – the five victims and the Uber driver, Mr Mashood – went to the hospital that night as a result of Gilheaney’s actions.

Police eventually found him passed out in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in Holborn, central London, jurors heard.

He began crying and told police officers he was ‘sorry for everything’, and said he was ‘guilty’.

When interviewed by police, Gilheaney claimed he could not remember anything or identify himself driving the car on CCTV camera footage.

Gilheaney denies one count of murder, one count of wounding with intent, three counts of attempted murder, two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, and one count of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm.

The trial continues.

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