 Soans-Wade was convicted of murder in January |
A drug addict who murdered a stranger by pushing him under a Tube train has been given a life sentence. Stephen Soans-Wade, 36, claimed voices in his head told him to push Christophe Duclos onto the tracks at Mile End station, east London in September 2002.
The trial heard he had been desperate to get into hospital, but was discharged because he did not show signs of mental illness.
He was sentenced at the Old Bailey to serve a minimum of 13 years in jail.
On Tuesday Judge Martin Stephens told Soans-Wade: "It appears it was your obsessive desire to escape into hospital which impelled you to kill someone - it mattered not who."
French national Mr Duclos, who had worked in England for six years, died from his injuries three days after the attack. Soans-Wade, from Poplar, east London, had admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
But a jury convicted him of murder in January after hearing he had a history of personality disorder and violence.
He had made several attempts to be admitted to casualty departments at the Royal London, St Thomas' and King's College hospitals, the trial heard.
And in the six weeks before Mr Duclos's death, he had gone to St Clement's Hospital in Bow, east London, three times.
He was discharged because doctors said he was not mentally ill.
 Security guard Mr Duclos had worked in England for six years |
Doctors suspected he was abusing illegal drugs on the ward and selling them to other patients. He tested positive for heroin and cocaine on his arrest and had been prescribed methadone.
An internal inquiry has since been carried out by the East London and The City Mental Health NHS Trust and an independent report is due to be published in May.
The judge said Soans-Wade had "significant assessment and treatment" in hospital.
But his conduct and drug use had made the doctors' task "difficult if not impossible".
The court heard Soans-Wade felt safe in hospital and did not want to return to his flat, despite offers of help.
He was once treated for nine days after telling his GP he would push someone under a train if he was not readmitted to hospital.
The day he killed Mr Duclos, Soans-Wade called 999 and was taken to the Royal London, but left when he realised staff had called St Clement's to make inquiries. He travelled around on the Tube for hours before spotting Mr Duclos, shoving him off the platform, then walking casually away.
He told police: "Voices in my head told me to do it."
But Vivian Robinson QC, prosecuting, asked the jury: "Did he really hear voices or was this a calculated act motivated not so much by voices of command as by a determination to get himself admitted to hospital at all costs?"
Outside court, Mr Duclos's brother Emmanuel said: "Why was he outside, an individual with such a violent history, an accident waiting to happen?
"The system failed Christophe."
In a statement the East London and The City Mental Health NHS Trust expressed their condolences to the family of Mr Duclos.
It added that Soans-Wade had been thoroughly assessed but no evidence of mental illness to warrant keeping him in hospital had been found.
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Did he really hear voices or was this a calculated act ... to get himself admitted to hospital at all costs? 
