A Bethnal Green man has been jailed for four years after he jumped from the top floor of Westfield Stratford City and landed on a budding doctor who was left paralysed.

Amsumana Sillah Trawally, of Parmiter Street, was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court today (Friday, October 18) after admitting grievous bodily harm.

The court heard that the 25-year-old spent around four and a half hours choosing where to jump over the barrier on October 17 last year.

At around 4pm, he fell to the ground floor and onto Grace Spence Green, 22, who was in the final stages of her training to become a doctor.

Judge Paul Southern told the court that Ms Green suffered "catastrophic" injuries, including a fractured spine, and is confined to a wheelchair.

The court was shown video footage of her police interview and Judge Southern said: "This remarkable young woman spoke without any bitterness about the person responsible for her injuries, being focussed instead, to use her own words, on learning how to live a new life."

He said Ms Green was walking through the shopping centre towards Stratford station as she was on her way to a climbing centre in London where she gave her time twice a week to coach children.

The court heard that she will unable to climb again, and that it is possible that her paralysis will be permanent.

But the judge said that she has now returned to her medical studies after spending months in hospital.

He added: "Her resilience and positivity is extraordinary."

Trawally, who suffered a fractured leg in the fall, had originally pleaded not guilty to the charge of grievous bodily harm but later changed his plea to guilty.

The court was told a medical report was commissioned by Trawally's legal representatives, where a doctor found that it was highly likely that Trawally was under the influence of an illicit substance - possibly cannabis, which he tested positive to in hospital.

The doctor also found that this substance contributed to Trawally experiencing psychotic symptoms which had a significant effect on his mental state.

But Judge Southern said: "I am entirely satisfied that the offending was attributable to voluntary consumption of cannabis rather than any underlying mental disorder."

Sentencing Trawally to four years in jail, the judge added: "There is nothing to suggest that this was a spontaneous or impulsive act on your part. Therefore, there was a significant degree of pre-meditation.

"That alone is sufficient but on one view it might be said that you effectively used your body as a weapon to carry out this offence, given that you could have been in no doubt at all that you were very likely to fall on top of one of the people in the crowded area below."