Video: Ionel Rapisca convicted of GBH after platform push at Farningham Road station
Comments |
CCTV footage of the moment Miss Buchanan was pushed
off the platform
by Keith Hunt
A man who pushed a woman onto a railway line after she
complained about him smoking has been jailed for four years.
Judge Charles Macdonald QC told Ionel Rapisca:
"This is a very grave crime. You could easily have killed the
victim. As it is, her career is over and she has to endure
psychitric illness."
Rapisca was convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm on
Linda Buchanan by a jury of seven men and five women.
The 33-year-old Romanian, of Joyce Green Lane, Dartford, was
acquitted of the more serious charge of causing grievous bodily
harm with intent.
The prosection offered no further evidence on another
alternative of assault causing actual bodily harm. All the charges
were denied.
Miss Buchanan, who worked as a senior management
consultant in London, said in a statement afterwards: "I am
delighted with the result. I am glad to have closure after 18
months.
"My intention was only ever to politely explain to Mr Rapisca
that it is against the law to smoke at this station and I remain
incredibly shocked how this resulted in such an unprovoked attack
of violence."
The mother-of-three, 59, narrowly missed a live 750-volt rail as
she hit the track at Farningham Road station on August 6, 2008,
shortly before a non-stop train was due to hurtle through.
She told Maidstone Crown Court she looked up to see Rapisca
laughing as she lay injured with a broken wrist. He then jumped
down on the track and she said: "I thought he was going to finish
me off."
Audio: Helene
Buchanan-Dunne talks to reporter Jo Sword outside court
After sentencing, Linda's daughter Helene Buchanan-Dunne, 39,
said: "My mum has had to wait 18 months to have some kind of
conclusion to this. We could have been going to a funeral it was
that serious."
Det Ch Insp Gareth Williams, investigating officer from British
Transport Police (BTP), said: "This was an appalling act of
violence on a woman who was simply intending to catch an early
morning commuter train to London."
Rapisca, a carpenter, was originally refused asylum in the UK
but then became a naturalised British citizen after Romania's entry
into the European Union.
Monday, March 01 2010
The KM Group does not moderate comments.
Please click here for our house rules.