From the Archives: The nightmare before Christmas at Rackham's

Dec 8 2010 By Edward Chadwick

FOR millions, Christmas shopping means trawling tinsel-decked aisles to the strains of festive music being played on loop to try and pick out a last-minute gift for a loved one.

But for those who were in Birmingham department store Rackham’s on December 8 1994, it is a time of year which will always raise the ugly spectre of a bloodbath with changed their lives forever.

Manager Karen Crosby, then aged 35, was demonstrating fragrances on the Estee Lauder perfume counter at about 10.20am when she became the first victim of the frenzied attack.

She reacted to the sight of powerfully-built knifeman David Morgan raising a 10-inch-long butcher’s blade above her head by lifting her hands to save her face.

Such was the ferocity of his attack that tendons were ripped from her fingers and palm as she fought for her life.

Her quickly-raised defence saved her and she escaped with only minor injuries to her face.

But almost before anybody could react, crazed Morgan had moved on to satisfy his blood lust elsewhere on the ground floor.

Fourteen more victims were to follow and their accounts are no less harrowing than the first.

Shop worker Joanne Evans, then 28 years old, needed 34 stitches after she was caught up in the frenzy of violence.