Home UK Schizophrenic says he deliberately shoved 91-year-old former Eurotunnel boss onto Tube tracks

Schizophrenic says he deliberately shoved 91-year-old former Eurotunnel boss onto Tube tracks

0

Face of Nation : A SCHIZOPHRENIC claims he deliberately pushed a 91-year-old man onto tube tracks seconds before a train was due to arrive because he “looked old”, a court heard today.

Paul Crossley, 47, shoved former Eurotunnel boss Sir Robert Malpas onto the line at Marble Arch underground station in central London last April. Mr Crossley had attempted to push another man, Tobias French, onto the tracks at a nearby station minutes earlier. He was found guilty of two counts of attempted murder.

At his sentencing hearing Benjamin Aina QC, prosecuting, told the Old Bailey: “What he told the probation officer is that he targeted Sir Robert Malpas, the second victim, because he looked old and less likely to be able to withstand his attack.

“And he agreed that the attack was deliberate, considerate and targeted behaviour.”

Mr Aina disputed the claim of psychiatrist Dr Anneka John-Kamen that Mr Crossley was suffering from psychosis and paranoia at the time of the attacks.

The doctor had stated that Mr Crossley, of Leyton, east London, had told her listening to the song West End Girls by the Petshop Boys had “sent” him to the West End area as he believed it contained “a message for him”.

The hit song from the pop duo contains the lyrics: “You think you’re mad too unstable […] Call the police there’s a mad man around, Running down underground.”

Dr John-Kamen explained his “delusions of reference” was an element of his psychotic symptoms.

She said: “Yesterday he said it sent me to the West End and previously he said, “the song was on and I thought it meant I should go to the West End.”

Referring to another psychiatrist Dr Philip Joseph who also reported on Mr Crossley, prosecutor Mr Aina said: “Dr Joseph asked him, ‘I asked the defendant if he could have pushed a woman or a child on the tracks and he said that he would never have done that.’

“Is somebody who is suffering from psychosis able to show that level of selection?

“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?”

Earlier, in reference to the Dr John-Kamen’s three reports on Mr Crossley, the judge said that while the song West End Girls had become a “factor” flagged up in the psychiatrists’ reports, other issues including the defendant’s large debts to his drug dealers were “other possible factors”.

Mr Crossley, who was addicted to crack, told the police after the incident that he’d had “no sleep” after taking £600 worth of the drug the previous day.

Sir Robert, who attended the sentencing hearing at the Old Bailey, was saved by teacher Riyah El Hussani who leapt from the platform just one minute before a train was due to arrive.

The court heard Sir Robert was 90-years-old at the time and suffered severe cuts to his head, needing 12 stitches, as well as a fractured pelvis.

Mr Aina said: “While Sir Robert was in the pit below the tracks he was bravely assisted by a member of the public, Riyah El Hussani, who jumped down to the tracks.

“Mr El Hussani received a burn as he touched an electrified track, but again, fortunately, he has recovered from his physical injury.

“When asked for an explanation for his action by police in his formal interview held the next day, Mr Crossley simply said, ‘I had no sleep’.

“During the trial, he stated in evidence, he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia when he was 17-years-old.”

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR