The man who was confronted by killer Axel Rudakubana during his rampage at a Southport dance class has revealed how he deals with intrusive thoughts after witnessing the horror.
John Hayes has given an in-depth interview for the first time since he was stabbed in the leg by the attacker, a wound that could have killed him had it severed a nearby artery.
He was working in his office at the Norwood Business Centre, which contains the studio where the class was taking place, when he heard someone say there was an injured girl in the car park.
After rushing away from his desk to help, he came face-to-face with Rudakubana in the lobby of the building.
John told the Sunday Times: ‘He looked menacing, like that horrible mugshot that keeps appearing on TV. He was crouched, tiger-like. He looked like he was about to kill me, basically.’
The attacker almost did – the knife came within 3cm of his femoral artery, which would have meant almost certain death if it had been cut.
He continued: ‘I often use the phrase, “I’d like to have been a bit more Bruce Willis about it”.
‘I’d love to have taken the knife off him and knocked him out. To have been that brave and that heroic. But in some respects I was a bit hapless.’
Three girls – Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven – died in the attack on July 29.
Rudakubana was also convicted of attempting to murder eight other children, class instructor Leanne Lucas and Mr Hayes.
The 18-year-old was jailed for life with a minimum term of 52 years in January after unexpectedly changing his plea to guilty on the first day of his trial.
John told the newspaper his therapist taught him a technique to cope with the intrusive thoughts that have tormented him since the day of the attack.
He now imagines himself walking on Wansfell Pike in the Lake District, which has an ‘uninterrupted view of Windermere’, then sitting down and having a drink before reassuring himself that he is still alive.
Last month, Leanne Lucas also spoke out for the first time about her experience confronting the attacker and desperately trying to help the children escape.
She told BBC Panorama: ‘He was bigger than me and I just thought I needed to get some help. So, we were shouting: ‘Run’, and I called 999 from the landing and asked for the police.
‘I just wanted everyone to get out of the building. I just kept saying: “There’s children inside. There are children inside” … My brain’s going 100 miles an hour but my body won’t do anything.
‘And then people are asking me questions and I’m just saying: “Go and get the children.” I just don’t know what else I could’ve done… You just don’t feel brave when you’re an adult.’
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