An accused knifeman punched the air with joy was h

An accused knifeman punched the air with joy was he was
cleared by an Old Bailey jury of abducting and stabbing a woman
on the streets on Brixton.

Ray Moncrieffe, 25, insisted from the outset that the
police had got the wrong man – despite being picked out on an
identity parade by the victim and a witness.

And he explained to the jury that he was sweating when
arrested not because he was running from police but because of
a run-in with an irate drug dealer.

Victim Catherine Ryan, 27, was just minutes away from
her home when the attacker struck, said prosecutor Mr Peter
Walsh.

The man asked her where he could buy drugs but walked
off when Miss Ryan agreed when he asked if she wanted him to
leave her alone.

She took a detour from her normal route to escape him
and hurried along Barrington Road, but suddenly met up with
the attacker as she turned a corner.

He blocked her path a few yards from her home in
Millbrook Road, and said:: ‘I’ve got a bit of a problem.

Have
you got any money?’
The knifeman then put his arms defendant put his arm
around her chest making her stumble
He stifled her screams by putting his hand over her
mouth and told her ‘I’ve got a knife.

The attacker added: ‘I’ve got a gun.

Do you want to
die?
She was frogmarched into a blind alley and was kicked
and punched by her assailant when she fell to the ground.

The knifeman fled moments after stabbing Miss Ryan when
a fire engine, its siren blaring and blue lights flashing pulled
up nearby.

The victim had been stabbed in the back and armpit but
fortunately escaped serious injury.

Moncrieffe maintained that he was the victim of mistaken
identity and told the court he had nothing to do with the attack
and had not even spoken to the victim.

Moncrieffe said he had been to see a drug dealer nearby,
who he had leant pnds stlg 150 to buy cannabis.

He claimed when he asked for the money back the dealer
not only refused but also threatened him with a gun and a knife.

Fearing for his life, Moncrieffe fled the house.

Soon
after he was arrested for the attack on Miss Ryan.

‘It was just a case of being in the wrong place at
the wrong time,’ he told the court.

Moncrieffe, of John Keats House, Commerce Road, Wood
Green, was unanimously cleared of kidnapping and wounding with
intent on January 31 this year.

His girlfriend, who had sat in the public gallery
throughout the trial wept tears of joy as he walked free.

ENDS