The pensioner shoved the girl off the platform towards the tracks as the train arrived, last June. The girl fell between two carriages but was lucky to be knocked back onto the platform by the train. She suffered only cuts and bruises.

Focus magazine reported that the man, named only as Ludwig D., had admitted the attack, but said he had felt threatened by a group of young people and had panicked. He said he had not meant to hurt, let alone kill the girl.

It spoke in his favour that he had apologised early, the state prosecutor admitted, and that he had already paid the girl €10,000 in compensation.

The public prosecutor had called for the man to be locked up for five years for attempted murder, but he was convicted of the lesser crime and sentenced to two years and nine months.