Stabbed Just For Having A Laugh

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A MAN who told off three teenage girls for laughing and chatting on the bus went berserk and stabbed them after they got off.

Charlotte Teague, 14, was left fighting for her life after the attacker plunged a long blade into her chest and stomach.

Friends Sophie Hyne, 15, and cousin Kirsty Edwards, 17, were also stabbed several times by the knifeman who followed them off the bus in quiet Bridport, Dorset.

Horrified passersby used their hands and tissues to stem the blood pouring from their wounds.

Helen Choudhury, 53, owner of the Taj Mahal restaurant, dashed out with tea-towels. She said "There was a young girl who was holding her stomach which had blood coming out of it. She was in terrible pain and was screaming. She was in such awful pain."

Kirsty, from Staffs, was on the first day of her seaside holiday on Wednesday and the friends had gone to the amusement arcade in nearby Weymouth.

They were on their way home to Bridport when the attacker told them to pipe down.

Witnesses saw him attack them at the bus stop leaving them bleeding on the pavement in the pouring rain around 6pm.

One of the girls' parents had been due to pick them up from the bus and arrived just afterwards. Kirsty rang police on her mobile.

Witness Alan McNamee said: "One of the girls said they had been sat behind the man on the bus and were laughing and joking.

"The man turned round and told them to shut up.

"She said that as they got off the bus one of them made a comment to him and he chased them off and attacked them on the street."

Mrs Choudhury added: "I gave the girls tissues, towels and water and I tried to offer a chair but one poor girl couldn't sit, she was in too much pain.

"Her stomach was pierced on the right side, and she had two ladies holding her and putting pressure with their hands on the wound. She was crying.

"One girl had blood coming from her nose. Both looked frightened out of their lives."

Rasheed Ahmed, who works in the Taj Mahal, said: "Blood was coming out of her and she was crying and calling for her mum.

"She phoned her mum saying, 'Mum, come and help me'."

Sue Matthews had been a passenger on the bus. She said: "I saw him lashing out. I held a tea-towel over the girl's tummy."

Another witness said: "It was like a horror movie."

An ambulance was on the scene within five minutes. A specialist trauma team was put on standby at the hospital to treat Charlotte - known as Charlie.

She is in intensive care in Dorset County Hospital.

Sophie was stabbed in the face and three times in the back and side. Kirsty was knifed twice in the back and stomach. Both were in a stable condition last night.

Chief Insp Nick Maton said: "It was an horrific attack.

"It is exceptionally unusual for a stabbing to occur in Bridport, let alone the multiple stabbing of three young girls.

"The girls felt like they had been punched, then saw the puncture wounds and noticed that there was blood and realised they had been stabbed."

Police sealed off the town centre and hunted for the attacker. They later arrested a man. Last night Stuart Gerald Grinton, 20, was helping with their inquiries.