Met honours men who trapped satanic killer

Three men who disarmed a devil-worshipper after he stabbed one boy to death and was attacking another are being honoured today by the police.

Sheikh Salim, Anwar Ali Khan and Simon Weissand intervened as Edward Crowley launched a knife attack on Roberto Pineiro-Villar, 15, as his half brother Diego, 12, lay dying.

Mr Salim, 28, and Mr Khan, 26, wrestled Crowley to the ground and Mr Weissand, 34, helped pin the killer down after running from his flat overlooking the scene in Covent Garden.

Crowley, now 54, a disciple of satanist Aleister Crowley, was jailed for life last February for murdering Diego.

The trio will receive an award from the Metropolitan Police for their courage. The Mayor of Camden, Roger Robinson, will present a certificate of commendation at Camden town hall.

Frank Dobson, MP for Holborn and St Pancras, said: "They risked their lives for the sake of a total stranger. Like many people, I do not know if I would have had the courage to do it, and that is why they really deserve the honour."

Mr Khan and Mr Salim were working as waiters in the Sartaj Balti House when Crowley struck outside on Sunday 7 May, two years ago. Mr Salim told the Evening Standard before receiving the award: "I could not run away, I had to do something.

"At first I saw a man chase someone and grab him. I thought it was a domestic dispute as, from behind, the boy looked a bit like a woman. It looked like he was being punched but I thought that's a funny way to punch someone. The man just wasn't stopping.

"I went over and said, 'That's enough now, leave off.' He tried to stab me but missed. I grabbed him and felt something warm, looked at my sleeve and it was covered in blood. He turned towards me and then Anwar came running, shouting, 'He's got a knife!' and he saved me. We both grabbed him and wrestled him down. The boy was lying there motionless and the other kid was screaming with agony.

"All the time I was thinking if I had got there a minute or two earlier I might have saved both. The best thing was when his mum came and thanked me for saving her son's life. I was speechless. She had lost one son and was thanking me. I just hugged her."

Traumatised by the attack, Mr Salim moved away from London for six months and had counselling. He has never returned to the scene, though he has come back to London and works as a supervisor at a Bayswater restaurant.

Mr Khan, who still works at the Sartaj, said: "I think I did what anyone else would do but I still find it hard knowing so many people just stood and watched. A few weeks after it happened I went abroad just to get away from it. Time does heal it, though."

Foreign exchange broker Mr Weissand said he hoped the award would encourage others to do the same: "If more people are rewarded then more will be encouraged to react."

Crowley, born Henry Alan Bibby, changed his name to that of the infamous satanist. A paranoid schizophrenic, he developed a warped obsession for Diego after befriending the "polite and kind" schoolboy in Phoenix Gardens, Covent Garden.