Tube train murder bid Scot is locked up
A MENTALLY ill Scot has been locked up indefinitely for pushing a man in front of a train a day after he was released from hospital.
Former Royal Mail worker Alan Alencar was said to have a vacant expression as he shoved Alain Lesjongard on to the tracks then tried to leave by mingling with horrified commuters.
Mr Lesjongard survived ‘by an extraordinary stroke of luck’ as he curled up in a foetal position between the live rails as the train passed over him at Bayswater Tube station in London.
He managed to crawl back on to the platform despite suffering a broken leg, fractured spine and a deep cut to his head in the attack on November 2.
Alencar has suffered mental health problems since 2012 and was admitted to an Edinburgh hospital in April last year.
The 29-year-old was prescribed anti-psychotic medication and was being ‘prepared for discharge’ to his own flat.
On November 1 he was given unescorted leave and travelled to London to visit his mother, who also suffers from severe mental health problems.
He was returning from seeing her when he got off a train at Bayswater and sat on a bench around 5pm. About a minute later Mr Lesjongard, 55, walked on to the platform.
CCTV footage was played to the court showing the moment Alencar pushed the finance expert on to the tracks.
Prosecutor Alex Agbamu told the Old Bailey: ‘Just before the train came into the station, he rose from the seats and gave Mr Lesjongard a hard push from behind, sending him into the path of the oncoming train.
‘The train driver, MariaVictoria Kakar, immediately applied the emergency brake which brought the train to a halt three-quarters of the way down the platform, passing over Mr Lesjongard as he lay curled between the tracks.
‘By an extraordinary stroke of luck Mr Lesjongard not only avoided touching the live rails, he avoided any significant impact with the train.’
He added: ‘Members of staff on the platform were astonished to see Mr Lesjongard crawl out from under the train and heave himself on to the platform. His suit was in shreds and he was in a state of shock.’
Mr Lesjongard was heard to say he thought he was dying.
Alencar was arrested in the ticket hall and described as having a ‘wide-eyed stare and a vacant expression’.
After being told the victim might have died, he replied:
‘Extraordinary stroke of luck’
‘First time for everything, but I won’t do that again. I was crazy and stupid.’
Mrs Kakar, the mother of a two-year-old son, has been unable to work since the incident.
Mr Lesjongard, a father of two who lives in south London, still suffers pain in his back and his left leg, which is held together with screws and plates. His 12-year-old daughter continues to suffer anxiety.
‘At the moment of being pushed onto the tracks he thought it was the end,’ said Mr Agbamu. ‘He does not know why somebody would do this to another human being.’
Alencar’s barrister Andrew Forsyth said: ‘This would not have happened but for the serious illness from which he suffered at the time.’ A doctor described Alencar as ‘living in another world for years’ and ‘detached from reality’.
Judge Sara Munro, QC, detained Alencar indefinitely under the Mental Health Act at Springfield Hospital in London.
She told him: ‘Miraculously Mr Lesjongard was not killed in this incident. He rightly feels lucky to be alive.
‘You are suffering from a severe and enduring mental illness.’
Alencar had admitted attempted murder at a previous hearing at the Old Bailey.