Man who pushed stranger onto tracks as train approached jailed for life

A jury heard that Mr Potoczek narrowly missed touching the live rail

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 being found guilty of attempted murder in an attack a judge said would "strike fear into every traveller on the Underground".

On February 3, Shorsh, who entered the UK illegally, 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, of no fixed address, leapt up and shoved him off the platform and onto the train tracks. 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.

A jury heard that Mr Potoczek narrowly missed touching the live rail on the southbound Victoria Line. In his sentencing remarks, Mr Justice Kelleher said it was "purely through luck that Mr Potoczek fell close to the edge of the track and did not touch the electric rail".

Kurdish migrant Shorsh left before the police arrived and was arrested after being found on a bench at Warren Street station at about 10pm 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. During the trial, Shorsh said he was also made angry by some women passing on a previous train who he believed were laughing at him.

Addressing Shorsh, Mr Justice Kelleher said: "It is no exaggeration to say that this was an extremely dangerous criminal act that would strike fear into every traveller on the Underground. It follows a pattern of previous violent acts towards anyone who challenged you".

Shorsh was first identified in the UK in 2018, having entered illegally, the judge added. Shorsh had told a psychiatrist that he went to school in Kurdistan and worked in a shop before leaving his country because of a falling out with his father.

The Kurdish migrant said he lost his identity documents after being refused asylum in Germany and then France, before travelling on to the UK. He was initially housed in Yorkshire, but moved to London in late 2018.

Within months of his arrival in the UK, Shorsh committed a racially aggravated offence of common assault and received a prison sentence of 12 weeks, Mr Justice Kelleher said. Once in London, between 2019 and 2023 he committed a further five offences of assault or battery, an offence of threatening a person in public with a bike chain, and three offences of outraging public decency.

Mr Justice Kelleher said most of the assaults were committed "towards officers attempting to move him along from railway stations". The last offence, committed in November 2023, was an unprovoked attack on a female rail passenger, in which Shorsh "struck her to the back of the head".

During this period, Shorsh served six separate short prison sentences, Mr Justice Kelleher said. Before jailing him for life with a minimum term of eight years and 49 days, the judge said Shorsh posed a "high risk of serious physical harm to members of the public".

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."