The schizophrenic who pushed 91-year-old former Eurotunnel boss Sir Robert Malpas onto tube tracks on the London underground has been jailed for 12 years minimum.

Featured Image VIA

Paul Crossley, 47, shoved his victim onto the tracks at Marble Arch station in April last year, breaking his pelvis and opening up a gash on his head. Thankfully, hero bystander Riyad El Hussani jumped down onto the tracks and helped Sir Robert to safety before the train arrived.

Other commuters chased Crossley down and held him until police arrived.

Here’s the video:

So why did Crossley do it? Well, at his sentencing he explained he’d had ‘no sleep’ the night before after taking £600 worth of crack cocaine. He said the Pet Shop Boys song ‘West End Girls’ came on the radio and somehow he believed the song was giving him instructions to head to the West End and hurt someone.

I don’t know which lyric gave him that explicit idea, but imagine being high on £600 worth of crack and listening to these lyrics:

Sometimes you’re better off dead
There’s a gun in your hand and it’s pointing at your head
You think you’re mad, too unstable
kicking in chairs and knocking down tables
in a restaurant in a West End town
Call the police! There’s a madman around
Running down underground
to a dive bar in a West End town

In a West End town, a dead end world
the East End boys and West End girls
In a West End town, a dead end world
the East End boys and West End girls
West End girls

Too many shadows, whispering voices
faces on posters, too many choices
If? When? Why? What?
How much have you got?
Have you got it? Do you get it?
If so, how often?
Which do you choose
a hard or soft option?
(How much do you need?)

In a West End town, a dead end world
the East End boys and West End girls
In a West End town, a dead end world
the East End boys and West End girls
West End girls
West End girls

(How much do you need?)

In a West End town, a dead end world
the East End boys and West End girls
A West End town, a dead end world
East End boys, West End girls
West End girls

You got a heart of glass or a heart of stone?
Just you wait ’til I get you home
We’ve got no future, we’ve got no past
Here today, built to last
In every city, in every nation
from Lake Geneva to the Finland station
(How far have you been?)

And a West End town, a dead end world
the East End boys and West End girls
A West End town, a dead end world
East End Boys, West End girls
West End girls

He told the court he also felt ‘anxious’ because he owed drug money to people who were threatening him.

Images VIA

I guess being instructed to murder someone by a Pet Shop Boys song is as good a reason as any when you’re a paranoid, schizophrenic crackhead with insomnia. The good news is of course that thanks to the heroics of everybody else on the platform Sir Robert lived to tell the tale and Crossley is now in a place where he can’t hurt anybody else and, with any luck, will get the help he needs also.

For a NSFL video of a paranoid schizophrenic running around Toronto and stabbing people at random, click HERE.