A 42-year-old man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for attempting to throw a young woman onto the Tube tracks as a train arrived.
Arthur Hawrylewicz approached a 22-year-old woman on the platform at King’s Cross Underground station in August last year, grabbing her before trying to throw her in front of an oncoming train.
Hawrylewicz pleaded guilty to attempted murder at Inner London Crown Court on 6 March. He received his sentence on Monday.
The young woman was travelling to Notting Hill Carnival on the afternoon of Monday 29 August, waiting on the platform for a Hammersmith and City line train with her friends.
Hawrylewicz had tried to speak to the victim, but after noticing that he was drunk, asked him to leave her alone. It was then that the 42-year-old grabbed her from behind and attempted to throw both her and himself in front of the approaching train.
Two of the young woman’s friends managed to save her from being thrown onto the tracks, desperately trying to pull her away. Hawrylewicz, who then moved his head in front of the train, received a blow which knocked him unconscious.
British Transport Police officers quickly descended on the scene and arrested Hawrylewicz, taken to hospital for treatment where his injuries were found not to be serious.
Fit to be interviewed the following day, he claimed that after consuming three beers and a third of a bottle of vodka he’d travelled to King’s Cross with the intention of harming himself. However, he claimed that he did not recall any interaction with the victim.
Following Hawrylewicz’s sentencing, Detective Sergeant Mike Blakeburn has described the attack as “unprovoked” and “disturbing” but has urged the public that incidents like these are “incredibly rare.”
“This was a completely unprovoked and incredibly disturbing attack which will have been beyond terrifying for the victim – a young woman who was on her way to enjoy a day at Notting Hill Carnival with her friends. Had it not been for their brave actions pulling her from Hawrylewicz’s clutches, we could easily have been dealing with a murder investigation”, DS Blakeburn said.
“Hawrylewicz claimed throughout interview that he had no recollection of the incident, but the victim will have to live with this traumatic memory for the rest of her life”, he added. “Thankfully he has now been handed a significant custodial sentence which will provide him with plenty of time to consider the implications of his senseless and violent behaviour.”
