Published on Wednesday 30 September. Proceedings are active in this case — this report contains only what has been officially confirmed.
A 56-year-old man has been charged overnight after a Metropolitan Police officer was stabbed in the leg during a dawn raid in north London.
Charles Charalambous, of Claremont Road in Cockfosters, was charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm to resist arrest. He was remanded in custody and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court this morning.
The charge relates to the early hours of Tuesday, when officers were executing a warrant in Cockfosters as part of a wider crackdown on a suspected organised crime group. During the operation, an officer was stabbed in the leg. He was taken to hospital and is expected to make a full recovery.
Cockfosters sits at the northern edge of the capital, in the London Borough of Enfield — an area better known for its green spaces and Tube terminus than for major police operations, which underlines the scale of what unfolded there on Tuesday.
Two more charged in the same operation
Two other men arrested during the same operation were also charged overnight and will appear at the same court this morning.
Carl Robinson, 49, of Stanford Rivers in Essex, was charged with possession of offensive weapons in a private place — namely three knives. Bradley Byford, 37, of Spellbrook Lane East in Bishop’s Stortford, was charged with possession of a weapon to discharge a noxious thing, namely electricity.
All three men remain under investigation as part of the wider inquiry and have been bailed in relation to those other suspected offences, the Met said.
18 arrests in Tuesday’s raids
The charges follow a large-scale operation on Tuesday in which 18 people were arrested — 17 in the morning and one more later in the day. The Met said the offences under investigation are complex in nature and require extensive work, including detailed examination of evidence gathered both before and after the arrests.
All 18 have been bailed while the investigation continues.
What the charge means
Wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm — often shortened to GBH with intent — is one of the most serious violent offences in English law. It is charged under section 18 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Prosecutors must show not only that really serious harm was caused or intended, but that it was done with the specific intent to cause it — or, as alleged here, to resist arrest.
Being remanded in custody means Charalambous is being held until his court appearance rather than released on bail — a step the police can take when the alleged offence is serious. At this morning’s first hearing, magistrates will confirm his identity, put the charge to him and decide the next steps. A case of this gravity would normally be sent to the Crown Court for trial.
The Met has reminded the media that proceedings are now active in all of the cases and urged particular caution over publishing anything that could risk prejudicing future trials — a standard warning, but one that underlines how much of this investigation is still to play out.
The officer’s expected full recovery will come as a relief to colleagues. Assaults on officers executing warrants remain one of the sharpest risks in frontline policing, and the force will now be watching both the court case and the wider organised crime investigation closely.
