Man ‘pushed in front of Tube train by stranger who thought he gave dirty look’
The lights of the oncoming train could be seen from the platform
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A postman was pushed in front of an oncoming train by a stranger who thought he had been given a dirty look, a jury has heard.
Brwa Shorsh, 24, allegedly shoved stranger Tadeusz Potoczek off the southbound Victoria line platform at Oxford Circus station on February 3 in an act of “shocking and random violence”, Inner London Crown Court was told.
Prosecutor Sam Barker also told the court that “happily tragedy was avoided” as Mr Potoczek did not fall on the electrified rail and a passerby rushed to help pull him off the track.
The lights of the oncoming train could be seen from the platform but the experienced train driver, Robert Walker, spotted Mr Potoczek, who was wearing a bright red jacket, and hit the emergency brake.
Mr Barker said: “The prosecution say there is only one reason you would push someone in front of a train and that is to kill them.”
Shorsh, of no fixed address, who listened to the hearing through a Kurdish interpreter, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempted murder and also denied an alternative count of attempted grievous bodily harm.
Mr Potoczek was on his way home via central London and looking up at a notice board when the incident happened.
He noticed Shorsh was sitting on a bench and was not moving and appeared not to be getting on or off a train, but seemed to be lying down and sleeping.
Mr Barker said: “Without a word of explanation (or) sort of provocation, leapt up and shoved him hard.”
Mr Potoczek fell from the platform but “to his horror a train was coming into the station – it was actually at the mouth of the entrance and because he stayed on his feet and (with) the quick-thinking member of the public (there) he was pulled out.”
The prosecution claim the defendant knew there was a train coming and Shorsh was heard shouting “what the f… are you doing here?”
The train was travelling at 60kph and two of its eight carriages entered the platform.
The court heard that the driver felt Mr Potoczek had a lucky escape as the lines were live.
Mr Barker said: “He (the driver) felt that if he (Mr Potoczek) had been on the tracks a few seconds later, he would have been killed.
“If he (the driver) had looked away for a few seconds, he (Mr Potoczek) would have been killed.
“He thought that the gap between disaster was about a few seconds.”
Shorsh was arrested later that afternoon at Warren Street station and told officers during his police interview he had pushed Mr Potoczek on to the track because “the man had given him a dirty look and he felt disrespect”, the court heard.
Mr Barker added “he said he knew the rail was electrified and that it was extremely dangerous” but that “disrespecting him was dangerous”.
The court heard Shorsh had felt that three women had previously been rude to him when he thought that Mr Potoczek had “given him a look”.
Mr Barker added that is “what is so frightening” as the prosecution say that Mr Potoczek “did not look at him whatsoever – it is the stuff of nightmares and he just felt himself being pushed in front of a train”.