A homeless man who pushed a stranger onto the tracks of the London Underground has been jailed for life with a minimum term of eight years.
Brwa Shorsh, 24, was sentenced on Thursday at Inner London Crown Court after he was found guilty of attempted murder, the CPS said. On February 3, Shorsh, of no fixed address, pushed postman Tadeusz Potoczek off a platform at Oxford Circus station and into the path of an oncoming Victoria Line train.
Mr Potoczek, who was 60 at the time of the attack, was on his way home from work and had walked past Shorsh who was sitting on a bench. Without any provocation, Shorsh leapt up and shoved him off the platform and onto the train tracks, the CPS said. The victim managed to stay on his feet and a passerby helped him to climb back up onto the platform just as a train pulled into the station.
Brwa Shorsh, 24, pushed postman Tadeusz Potoczek off a platform at Oxford Circus (
British Transport Police/PA)
A jury heard that Mr Potoczek narrowly missed touching the live rail on the southbound Victoria Line. The driver of an oncoming train said “if he had been on the track a few seconds later, he would have been killed”, Inner London Crown Court heard.
Mr Justice Kelleher awarded the passerby who aided Mr Potoczek £1,000 after commending his bravery and quick reaction, the CPS said. Kurdish migrant Shorsh, who had been sleeping rough in England since 2020, ran off before the police arrived and was arrested later that day. He admitted during his police interview that he had pushed the victim onto the track because “he had given him a dirty look” which made him angry, the CPS said.
Maxine Jarrousse-Jones, a senior crown prosecutor at the CPS, said: “Brwa Shorsh attempted to kill the victim by deliberately and forcefully pushing him into the path of an approaching train.
“He intended to harm the victim and it is impossible to imagine anything that could ever justify pushing anyone in front of a train like that. If not for the victim’s quick-thinking, the courage of the other passenger who came to his rescue and the speed at which the train driver brought the train to a halt, Shorsh’s actions could have cost the victim his life. Commuters should be able to travel freely without fear of violence or harm and I hope this sentencing is a reminder that such acts will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted as fully as the law allows.”