Brwa Shorsh, 24, deliberately shoved a postman into the path of an approaching train, claiming the victim had given him a funny look.
He has already been refused asylum in Germany and France, but managed to somehow slip into the UK, where he has given authorities three different dates of birth.
After a trial at Inner London Crown Court a jury convicted him of the attempted murder of Tadeusz Potoczek on February 3 and he received a sentence of life imprisonment.
Judge Benedict Kelleher announced Shorsh must serve a minimum and eight years and forty-nine days before he could be considered for parole.
The court heard at 2.53pm, Mr Potoczek, a man aged in his sixties, was walking along the Victoria Line southbound platform, where Shorsh was sitting on a bench.
As he neared Shorsh, checking the arrival of the next train on the overhead screen, he was pushed – unprovoked – onto the tracks as an underground service approached.
A witness immediately responded, pulling the victim back onto the platform.
The train driver also responded quickly to the incident and thankfully the victim did not sustain any serious injuries.
Shorsh left the station and he was arrested by an officer, who recognised him from the CCTV images collected, just hours later at Warren Street station at around 10.30pm.
Judge Kelleher told him: “You were complete strangers to each other and, as I will set out, he had done nothing at all to you to even begin to justify what you did to him.
“What happened was captured on clear CCTV footage.
“You had been lying down on a bench on the platform for some time, but were siting upright when Mr Potoczek approached.
“As he walked past, you stood up suddenly and pushed him hard to the side, causing him to fall onto the track.
“At the moment you did that, a train was seconds away from emerging the tunnel into the station.
“It was purely through luck that Mr Potoczek fell close to the edge of the track and did not touch the electric rail.
“He remained on his feet and thanks to the very quick reaction of another passenger, he was pulled to safety.
“The train driver saw what was happening and commendably was able to stop the train manually before it reached the point where Mr Potoczek had fallen.
“Had Mr Potoczek touched the electric rail or had the train not stopped in time he would almost certainly have lost his life or at least been caused very severe injury.
“You said that you had seen some women passing on the previous train, who you believed were laughing at you and that had made you angry.
“You said that you then felt disrespected by Mr Potoczek because of the way he looked at you.
“Although you denied trying to kill him you said that you did not care if he died.”
The victim told the trial he never looked at Shorsh in any particular way and this was accepted by the judge.
“I sentence you on the basis that for no other reason than that you were feeling generally angry and then wrongly perceived Mr Potoczek to have been looking at you, you made the spontaneous decision to try to take away his life,” continued Judge Kelleher.
“You were first identified in the UK in 2018, having entered illegally.”
Shorsh's multiple false dates of birth put him at between twenty-three and twenty-five years-old, however his personal life story to a psychiatrist adds up to a man in his late twenties.
This means he has consistently claimed to be younger than he is when asked to give his age.
Shorsh claimed a falling-out with his father as a teenager, prompted his departure from his native Kurdistan – losing his identity documents as he travelled through Europe.
“You say you were refused asylum in Germany and then France, before travelling to the UK,” added the judge.
“You were initially housed in Yorkshire, but then moved to London in late 2018. You appear to have been homeless on and off since then.
“You have since made an asylum application in the UK, but not until at least 2020.
“Within months of your arrival in the UK you committed a racially-aggravated offence of common assault and received a short sentence of twelve weeks.
“Once in London, between the beginning of 2019 and the end of 2023 you committed a further five offences of assault or battery, an offence of threatening a person in public with a weapon, a bike chain and three offences of outraging public decency.
“Most of the assault offences were committed towards officers attempting to move you along from railway stations.
“The last offence, committed in November 2023, was an unprovoked attack on a female rail passenger in which you struck her to the back of the head.”
Experts have assessed Shorsh's IQ at close to borderline learning disability and having no mental illness.
He continued to tell the Probation Service he believed Mr Potoczek disrespected him and deserved to be pushed and officers concluded Shorsh continues to pose a high risk of serious harm to the public.
A police officer who regularly saw Shorsh on the network since 2018 confirmed his behaviour and appearance had dramatically changed over the period.
“I have no hesitation at all in concluding that you are a dangerous offender,” Judge Kelleher told him. “You clearly pose a high risk of serious physical harm to members of the public.
“It is no exaggeration to say that this was an extremely dangerous criminal act that would strike fear into every traveller on the Underground.”
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