A tube passenger has been jailed for life after carrying out a horrific machete attack on a random commuter.
Passengers were forced to flee through two carriages when Ricky Morgan launched an unprovoked attack on James Porritt on the Jubilee Line between Green Park and Bond Street. Ricky, 35, was heard saying in reference to his victim: "This is not a terror attack, I only want him."
Mr Porritt was on his way to meet his girlfriend's father and told jurors that the incident was like a "horror movie" and The Terminator. The incident was caught by gruesome CCTV footage that continued for 20 minutes before Morgan was confronted by police, causing him to drop the machete.
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As a result of the incident, Mr Porritt suffered a severe injury to his right hand as bone-deep cuts to his head and shin which was treated by an off-duty doctor. Morgan denied attempted muder on grounds on insanity.
Despite this, he was found guilty by a jury at the Old Bailey in May while also being convicted of possessing a machete and a lock knife. On Monday, Judge John Hillen jailed Morgan for life with a minimum term of 16 years.
The judge said: “In the early evening of July 9 2021 in a crowded London Underground train carriage you tried to kill James Porritt, a man not known to you, by repeatedly slashing at him with the machete you had been carrying to use should the occasion arise.
“Having watched many times during the trial the ferocity of your attack captured by on-board CCTV images, James Porritt is very lucky to have survived.
“What happened will haunt him for the rest of his life. He thought he was going to die and never expected to escape from that attack alive.
“Many if not most of the people in the carriage, fearing you were about to slash people indiscriminately – and at least some of them fearing it was a terrorist attack – got up and started screaming and frantically trying to get away.
“It was a wonder that no-one else suffered injury. I think it is not too sensationalist or overdramatic to say this was every Tube traveller’s nightmare.”
Mr Porritt said in court: "It took less than 20 seconds on Friday July 9 2021 for my entire world to be irrevocably and irreversibly damaged and altered. I was caught completely off guard and unaware. I had no idea what weapon Ricky Morgan was using to attack me.
“It was only after he continued to rain down on me with relentless and persistent strikes that I realised he had used a sharp object to cut my right dominant hand into several pieces.” He recalled that he let out a "piercing scream" while begging Morgan to stop.
The victim described the "pure terror" of being chased by the potential killer, noting: "I genuinely thought he was going to kill me. He left me for dead.” Because of the injuries Mr Porritt suffered, he can no longer sign his own name or play the sports he used to enjoy.
"This is not fair, I do not deserve this. This should not have happened to me," he said. Addressing Morgan in the dock, Mr Porritt said no sentence would give back the life the defendant took away from him: “I hope you realise that, I really do.
“How does someone ever start to come to terms with such a horrific and undeserved attack?”
Mr Porritt was given a letter from the defendant to read but said it “changed nothing”, adding: “My only hope and desire is that no-one else ever has to go through what I went through.”
The jury heard how Morgan had a history of low-level violence dating all the way back to the age of 13. He had 26 previous convictions for 58 offences, including a crime of discharging a sawn-off shotgun into a private house.
Barrister Warwick Aleeson said: "Ricky Morgan does not wish to be the terrified, deluded creature living in a room he had barricaded from the outside world believing attackers were going to kill him.”
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