This is the moment a homeless man pushed a postman on to the Tube tracks at Oxford Circus station because he thought he had been given a “dirty look”.
Brwa Shorsh, 24, was sleeping on a bench on the Victoria line platform when he suddenly leapt up and shoved Tadeusz Potoczek off the platform.
Mr Potoczek, who was wearing his distinctive red Royal Mail uniform, was able to clamber back on to the platform with the help of a quick-thinking members of the public, just as a train entered the station.
Shorsh, a Kurdish migrant, admitted shoving Mr Potoczek but denied attempted murder, insisting he had not intended to harm him.
On Wednesday Shorsh was found guilty of attempted murder. He will be sentenced on September 26.
The incident happened on February 3, as Mr Potoczek, 61, made his way home from work.
“It’s the stuff of nightmares”, said prosecutor Sam Barker.
“A case of shocking and random violence.”
When he was arrested, Shorsh told police that he was “angry” afterbelieving 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 lookand he felt disrespected”, said the prosecutor.
“He thought his behaviour was just fine.”
Jurors heard Mr Potoczek, a postman by trade, was in a hurry toget home as he was due to catch a flight on the evening of the incident, onFebruary 3.
“The defendant pushed a total stranger off the platform at OxfordCircus tube station, into the path of an oncoming train”, said Mr Barker.
“Happily tragedy was avoided, but the prosecution say there’s onlyone reason you would push somebody in front of a train - it’s to killthem.”
Mr Potoczek says he noticed Shorsh lying on one of the benchesalong the platform, but he was focused on checking when the next train would arrive.
“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.”
The court heard Mr Potoczek managed to stay on his feet and awayfrom the live rails.
“To his horror”, said Mr Barker, “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.”
The driver put on the emergency brake when he saw the drama unfolding, and says his train was around four seconds away from hitting the fallen man.
Shorsh was arrested at Warren Street station the same evening, andclaimed to police that he had no intention of hurting the other man.
Giving evidence at Inner London crown court, Shorsh said he was “angry” after seeing three women on an earlier train who he believed had laughed at him for being homeless.
He told police when he was quizzed about the incident that he believed Mr Potoczek had given him a “dirty look”, and Shorsh told the court he believed the other man had been “very disrespectful to me”.
“You pushed a man in front of a train for looking at you. Do you think that was an appropriate reaction?”, asked prosecutor Sam Barker. Shorsh replied: “I was double angry reaction, (starting from) the women and when he came and passed I became angry – so the two are related.”
He added: “I agree. It was scary what I did.”
Shorsh also told the court he wished he had pushed Mr Potoczek harder.
On whether Mr Potoczek deserved this treatment, Shorsh said: “No, I can’t say it was right.”
The court heard Shorsh had been sleeping rough in England, including inside Tube stations to keep warm, since 2020.
Shorsh denied intending to kill or cause really serious harm to the victim, but said: “He made me angry and I hated him.”
He later added: “I am sorry for what happened. I did not intend to kill him and I am not a murderer.”
Reading from Shorsh’s police interview, Mr Barker told the court: “He said he did not intend for the man to be hit by the approaching train or be electrocuted on the tracts, but that he was aware that both things could happen.
“He said he was particularly upset because three women had already look at him disrespectfully and he had told them to f*** off.
“He said that he was ‘really angry’ as a result, and when Mr Potoczek gave him a dirty look he was ‘not able to stand it any longer’.
“He said that it was not important for him at all if the man died or did not die, because he was a fool and disrespected him.
“The defendant said he was not drunk nor had he taken any drugs at the time of the incident.”
Shorsh, of no fixed address, denied attempted murder and was found guilty by the jury after just over 30 minutes of deliberations.
He was remanded into custody until sentencing.
Judge Benedict Kelleher told Shorsh: “You have been found guilty of attempted murder, which is a very serious offence, and a long prison sentence will follow.”
