Tube pusher jailed for life for shoving elderly stranger, 91, onto tracks

A schizophrenic man who pushed a 91-year-old onto tube tracks shortly before a train arrived, has been jailed for life to serve a minimum of 12 years.

Paul Crossley, 47, shoved Sir Robert Malpas onto the rails at Marble Arch on April 27 last year, shortly after he had already tried to kill another commuter.

The former Eurotunnel boss, who had been due to attend a pensioners’ lunch, suffered a broken pelvis and a cut to the head which needed 12 stitches.

He escaped with his life due to the quick thinking of bystander Riyad El Hussani, who jumped down onto the tracks to help him.

Crossley was chased down the platform by members of the public, who detained him until police arrived.

He told officers he had had ‘no sleep’ and admitted to taking around £600 worth of crack cocaine the night before.

Before pushing Sir Robert, Crossley tried to shove Tobias French onto the tracks at Tottenham Court Road.

Fortunately Mr French was able to maintain his balance, with CCTV showing a train coming past almost immediately afterwards.

During his trial, Crossley, of Leyton, east London, denied two counts of attempted murder, telling jurors he picked his victims at random and did not mean to kill them.

He claimed the be paranoid on the day as he made his way to the West End to get coffee.

But jurors rejected his defence and found him guilty of two charges of attempted murder at the Old Bailey in October last year.

At his sentencing, which was previously adjourned, Crossley said he had gone to the West End after hearing the song West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys on the radio.

He claimed that he thought the song was giving him instructions and told another psychiatrist he remembered thinking: ‘Yes, yes, yes I’m going to hurt someone.’

The court heard he also felt ‘anxious’ because people he owed drug money to were threatening him.

When asked whether he would have pushed a woman or a child, Crossley told doctors he could never have done that.

The prosecutor then questioned whether someone suffering a psychotic episode would have shown ‘that level of distinction’ between their victims.

Benjamin Aina QC said: ‘Would you agree that the answer he has given is not indicative of someone who is suffering from psychosis?

‘You seem to be accepting at face value what he says to you.

‘Would you agree now seeing all of this, these matters I’m putting to you now are inconsistent with what was governing, what was controlling his mind so far as paranoia is concerned?’