Train track shover to remain behind bars

A man arrested after shoving a stranger onto the tracks at a busy Melbourne train station has had his hopes to be released from custody dashed.

Peter Thomas Stewart, 54, returned before the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Friday for a sentencing hearing after pleading guilty to charges stemming from the incident.

Stewart was arrested in Melbourne after a 64-year-old woman was pushed from the platform onto the train tracks at Richmond Railway Station about 3.50pm on July 3.

She was pulled out by members of the public and train network staff and taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

He fled the area but was arrested and charged the following day with offences including conduct endangering life, recklessly causing injury and unlawful assault.

His lawyer told Magistrate Roslyn Porter Stewart had received approval to live in an assisted living facility in Cranbourne if released from custody.

He said while the offending was very serious, his client had spent 135 days in custody and wanted to get help for his mental health and drug addiction issues through the Assessment and Referral Court (ARC).

ARC is a specialist court within the Magistrates’ Court jurisdiction which provides treatment and support for individuals with mental illness or impairments to address the underlying cause of their offending.

“He and the community would be best served by having the support that ARC provides,” the defence lawyer said.

“Rather than further days, weeks or months of imprisonment and being released into the community without those supports at the end.”

Police prosecutor senior constable Adrian Needham submitted a jail sentence was “in range” to ensure denunciation of Stewart’s actions in assaulting an innocent member of the community.

Ms Porter said while she was “certainly open to working with Mr Stewart” she needed further time to consider what an appropriate sentence would be.

“He probably does need to be sentenced to a term that is much more significant than what he’s actually served,” she said.

“On the one hand there needs to be just punishment and consequence for what happened and on the other hand protection of the community necessitates trying to deal with the issues that brought Mr Stewart before the court.”

The court was told the woman had written a letter detailing the impact Stewart’s offending had on her life but did not want it to be read in open court.

After reading the letter, Ms Porter said she wanted to acknowledge the “significant impact” on the woman and thanked her for the effort taken to describe what happened.

The case was adjourned for a month and will return before Ms Porter in December.