A failed asylum seeker who tried to murder a postman by shoving him in front of a Victoria Line Tube train has been jailed for life.
Brwa Shorsh, 24, pushed Tadeusz Potoczek without warning from the platform at Oxford Street just a few seconds before a train was due to arrive.
Mr Potoczek, who was on his commute home, was pulled to safety by a man on the platform, while the quick-thinking train driver slammed on the brakes with seconds to spare, Inner London crown court heard.
Shorsh later claimed Mr Potoczek had given him a “dirty look”, and suggested he had shoved the stranger to calm himself down.
“It’s the stuff of nightmares”, said prosecutor Sam Barker. “A case of shocking and random violence.”
Judge Benedict Kelleher sentenced Shorsh to life in prison with a minimum term of eight years and 49 days, telling him Mr Potoczek “had done nothing at all to you to even begin to justify what you did to him”.
He said Shorsh was “generally angry” in the moments before the attack, and told the hearing: “I’m sure he hadn’t looked at you in any sort of hostile way, and hadn’t done anything he could have foreseen would cause you to attempt to harm him, let alone kill him.”
The judge concluded: “It is no exaggeration to say that this was an extremely dangerous criminal act that would strike fear into every traveller on the London Underground.”
Shorsh stood with his arms folded as the sentence was delivered, and let out a smile when the judge announced the life sentence.
The court heard Shorsh, who is originally from Rayna in Northern Iraq, was denied asylum in Germany before he was smuggled into the UK on the back of a lorry in 2018.
He racked up 13 criminal convictions between 2018 and early 2024, and in 2020 a bid to have him deported was launched.
Shorsh claimed asylum, which was refused, and he served six separate prison sentences in the UK, but continued to remain illegally in the country.
The court heard that in the weeks before the attack on Mr Potoczek, Shorsh randomly assaulted a woman on a Thameslink train when he struck her hard on the back of her head.
On February 3, Mr Potoczek was on his way home and in a hurry to catch a flight that evening when he was seen on camera walking along the Victoria Line platform.
Shorsh had been lying on a bench nearby, and suddenly sprung to his feet to shove Mr Potoczek from the platform and on to the tracks.
“As he walked past Mr Shorsh, as he drew level with him, Mr Shorsh – without a word and without explanation or any sort of provocation – leapt up and shoved him hard, off the platform and on to the track”, said Mr Barker.
Mr Potoczek managed to stay on his feet and away from the live rails, but “to his horror a train was coming into the station”.
“Because he managed to stay on his feet and because of the quick-thinking of a member of the public, he was pulled back out on to the platform”, added the prosecutor.
Oliver Matthews, the man who pulled Mr Potoczek to safety, was awarded £1,000 by the judge for his bravery.
“I commend the bravery and quick reaction of Mr Matthews which might not be expected of everyone. It was a selfless act and it should be marked with some reward”, he said.
Shorsh was arrested at Warren Street station, and later told police that in the minutes before the shove he was “angry” after believing three women on a passing train had been rude to him.
“He said he had done it because the man had given him a dirty look and he felt disrespected”, said the prosecutor.
“He thought his behaviour was just fine.”
Shorsh denied attempted murder, claiming he had never intended to cause Mr Potoczek any harm. But he was convicted by a jury after a trial.
The court heard he was convicted of racially aggravated assault in 2018 and was jailed for 12 weeks, and he was convicted of assaulting police officers in 2019 and 2020 at London Bridge and Green Park stations. IN the latter incident, he was also convicted of two counts of outraging public decency as well as threatening someone with a bike chain and lock.
Shorsh was convicted of outraging public decency again and battery in 2021, and in 2023 he pushed a staff member after being found slumped on a bench at Highbury and Islington station. For that offence, he was given a £120 fine.
In early 2024, Shorsh attacked the woman on the Thameslink train, and was wanted by police at the time of the attempted murder offence.
“These offences demonstrate a pattern of hostility and violence directed at other users and staff of the railway network”, said Mr Barker.
Shorsh claims he lost his travel documents off the side of a boat from Turkey to Greece, before reaching the UK.
The judge said there was no evidence of a psychiatric condition to explain the attempted murder bid, as he found Shorsh to pose a danger to members of the public.
Shorsh will only be considered for release after serving his minimum term, and may never be set free again.
