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Tube push attempted murder: Alan Alencar sectioned

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Alan Alencar was arrested moments after pushing Alain Lesjongard onto the tracks

A psychiatric patient who pushed a commuter into the path of an oncoming Tube train has been detained under the Mental Health Act.

Alan Alencar, 29, from Edinburgh, was sentenced at the Old Bailey after pleading guilty to attempted murder.

He was on day release when he shoved a stranger at Bayswater station during the evening rush hour on 2 November.

Alain Lesjongard, 55, fell between the tracks and curled up into a ball as the train passed over him.

He managed to crawl out from underneath the carriage and was taken to hospital with a broken ankle and cuts to his neck and shoulders.

The prosecution told the court that Mr Lesjongard's left leg is "held together with screws and plates".

The train driver, who has since endured flashbacks and nightmares, has not felt able to return to work, the Old Bailey heard.

Sentencing Alencar, Judge Sarah Munro QC said it was "miraculous that Mr Lesjongard was neither electrocuted nor killed".

The court was played CCTV footage of Alencar getting up from a bench, walking towards Mr Lesjongard and pushing him in the back with both hands, before walking away.

Alencar, who had been in London visiting his mother, was calm and compliant when arrested by British Transport Police, the court heard, and said: "First time for everything, but I won't do that again."

He added: "I was crazy and stupid but I won't do it again."

Alencar, of Northcote Street, Edinburgh, had travelled to London while on leave from a psychiatric institution in his home city.

He had been on medication and had improved to the point where he was granted unsupervised leave to go to his new flat, but instead travelled to London.

Judge Munro said: "You had been living in another world for years and had remained detached from reality."

She added: "I am quite satisfied that you are suffering from a severe and enduring psychotic illness. The diagnosis is unambiguous"