A schoolboy who pushed a young woman on to a railway line just 14 seconds before the train arrived at the station has been locked up for three years.

The 16-year-old, who cannot be named, shoved 19-year-old Chloe Forgie off the platform after an argument, and she landed just inches from the live rail.

Miss Forgie managed to scramble back on to the platform at Maze Hill before the train arrived, escaping with just a minor leg injury.

At the Old Bailey this morning, Judge Gerald Gordon said the boy did not know a train was coming at the time, but told him to ditch his connection to gangs or risk throwing his life away.

“It’s clear, certainly as far as schooling is concerned, before this you were doing extremely well with excellent academic prospects”, he said.

“You are at risk of throwing all that away which would be an absolute disaster.

“I’ve been trying young men your age for serious offences for long enough to know exactly what temptations and pressures there are for people like you to associate with local gangs.

“If you are going to make anything of your life, those pressures have to be resisted.”

The boy was cleared of attempted murder and attempted robbery at trial but convicted of attempted grievous bodily harm over the incident on May 27.

The court heard Miss Forgie had got off a train at Maze Hill just after 9.30pm and was waiting for her brother when she got into a row with the 16-year-old who was with two friends.

One of the group threw Lucozade in her face and slapped her, and when Miss Forgie crossed the bridge to the other platform the 16-year-old ran across and shoved her on to the track.

The court heard Miss Forgie shouted something at the boy but they gave differing accounts of what she said at trial and Judge Gordon said he could not be sure of the words used.

The 16 year-old, from Eltham, denied all the charges against him,. He was sentenced by videolink to three years in a young detention centre.