Failed asylum seeker jailed for life after pushing commuter in front of approaching tube train

The victim, Tadeusz Potoczek was pulled back onto the platform by another commuter just before the tube train arrived.

Inner London crown court heard how Shorsh, an Iraqi Kurd, had a string of criminal convictions for crimes including assault and sexual offences.

The prosecution said he was smuggled into the UK in the back of a lorry in 2018, after authorities in Germany rejected his bid for asylum there.

He racked up 13 separate criminal convictions in the six years he has lived in the UK.

Four years ago, the Home Office launched a bid to remove him from the country, but he was still living illegally, often sleeping rough, at the time he attempted to murder Potoczek on the Underground.

The victim had been walking along the Victoria line platform, on his way home after finishing his shift at the Royal Mail.

The court was shown CCTV of the horrific moment when Shorsh jumped up from a bench he'd been lying down on and pushed the off duty postie off the edge of the platform.

The lights of the approaching tube train could be seen emerging from the tunnel, just as another commuter managed to grab the victim and drag him to safety.

Shorsh had told police after his arrest that Mr Potoczek had given him a “dirty look”, and he had shoved him to calm himself down, as he "felt disrespected".

As he sentenced the Iraqi Kurd to life in prison, with a minimum of eight years behind bars, judge Benedict Kelleher told the defendant, Potoczek “had done nothing at all to you to even begin to justify what you did to him.

“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.”

Prosecutor Sam Barker said it was "the stuff of nightmares" a case of "shocking and random violence."

The failed asylum seeker served six separate prison sentences in the UK, but continued to remain illegally in the country.

Weeks before the attack on the London Underground, Shorsh had assaulted a woman on a Thameslink train, striking her hard on the back of the head.

The Iraqi Kurd let out a smile as the judge passed sentence, telling him: “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.”

The court heard there was no evidence of a psychiatric condition to explain the attempted murder of Potoczek.