A failed asylum seeker who tried to kill a postman by pushing him in front of a Victoria Line Underground train has been sentenced to life in prison.
Brwa Shorsh, 24, pushed Tadeusz Potoczek off the Oxford Street platform without warning, seconds before the train was due to arrive.
Inner London Crown Court heard that Mr Potoczek, who was on his way home, was pulled to safety by a man on the platform, while the quick-thinking train driver applied the brakes within seconds.
Shorsh later claimed Mr Potoczek gave him a “dirty look” and suggested he pushed the stranger to calm himself down.
“This is the stuff of nightmares,” prosecutor Sam Barker said. “A shocking and random case of violence.”
Judge Benedict Kelleher sentenced Shorsh to a minimum of eight years and 49 days in prison and told him Mr Potoczek “had done nothing to justify what he did to him”.
He said Shorsh was “generally angry” in the moments before the attack and told the hearing: “I am sure he did not look at you with any hostility nor did he do anything to you that he could have foreseen you would do to 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 passenger on the London Underground.”
Shorsh stood with his arms crossed as the sentence was announced and smiled as the judge announced the life sentence.
The court heard Shorsh, originally from Rayna in northern Iraq, was refused asylum in Germany before he was smuggled to the UK in the back of a lorry in 2018.
He was convicted of 13 crimes from 2018 to early 2024, and a bid for his deportation was launched in 2020.
Shorsh claimed asylum, which was rejected, and was sentenced to six counts of imprisonment in the UK, but he remained in the country illegally.
The court heard that in the weeks before the attack on Mr Potoczek, Shorsh randomly attacked a woman on a Thameslink train and then hit her hard on the back of the head.
On February 3, Mr Potoczek was heading home and was seen on camera walking on the Victoria Line platform as he rushed to catch a flight that evening.
Shorsh was lying on a nearby bench and suddenly jumped up, pushing Mr. Potoczek off the platform and onto the tracks.
“As he passed Mr Shorsh, coming level with him, Mr Shorsh jumped up without a word, without explanation or any provocation, and pushed him roughly off the platform towards the runway,” Mr Barker said. .
Mr Potoczek managed to stay on his feet and stay away from the live tracks, but “to his horror, a train was coming into the station”.
“He managed to stand on his feet and was brought back onto the platform due to the quick thinking of a member of the public,” the prosecutor added.
Oliver Matthews, who pulled Mr Potoczek to safety, was given a £1,000 reward by the judge for his bravery.
“I appreciate Mr. Matthews’ extraordinary courage and quick reaction. This was a selfless act and should be rewarded with some reward,” he said.
Shorsh was arrested at Warren Street station and later told police he had become “angry” minutes before the scuffle because he believed three women on a passing train had been rude to him.
“She said she did this because the man looked bad at her and she felt disrespected,” the prosecutor said.
“He thought their behavior was perfectly fine.”
Shorsh denied attempted murder, claiming he did not intend to do any harm to Mr Potoczek. However, he was convicted by the jury after the trial.
The court heard he was convicted of racially aggravated assault in 2018 and sentenced to 12 weeks in prison, and was also found guilty of assaulting police officers at London Bridge and Green Park stations in 2019 and 2020. In the second incident, he was also found guilty of two counts of outraging public decency and threatening someone with a bicycle chain and lock.
Shorsh was again found guilty of outraging public decency and assault in 2021, and in 2023 he pushed a staff member after being found slumped on a bench at Highbury and Islington stations. He was fined £120 for this offence.
In early 2024, Shorsh attacked the woman on a Thameslink train and was wanted by police for attempted murder.
“These offenses reveal a pattern of hostility and violence towards other users and staff of the rail network,” Mr Barker said.
Shorsh claims he lost his travel documents on the side of a boat heading from Turkey to Greece before reaching the UK.
The judge said there was no evidence of a psychiatric condition that would explain the attempted murder, as he found Shorsh to be a danger to the public.
Shorsh will only be considered for release after serving the minimum sentence and may never be released again.