Paranoid schizophrenic 35-year-old admitted manslaughter

A cross-dressing killer who pushed a top human rights lawyer to her death under the wheels of a Tube train was cleared of murder today (Thursday).

Senthooran Kanagasingham, 35, of Chichele Road, Cricklewood, shoved friend Sonia Burgess into the path of a train at King’s Cross-Saint Pancras Tube station on October 25 last year.

Ms Burgess, 63, who was born and worked as a man named David but was known to family and friends as Sonia, died instantly.

Sri-Lankan Kanagasingham, who is also known as Nina, had been taking hormone therapy to change his gender at the time of the killing and was also taking anti-depressants.

Ms Burgess, a divorced father-of-three, who lived in central London, was content to remain biologically male and had not tried to physically change her gender

The court heard the paranoid schizophrenic had become angry after fellow transsexual Ms Burgess told his GP she was becoming ‘anxious and stressed’ at an appointment earlier that day.

Prosecutor Brian Altman QC said the killing had been executed will ‘full force’ and ‘perfect timing’, he told jurors: “The witnesses variously describe the push as very hard, full force, executed with perfect timing and with, as some witnesses say, both hands in the middle of the back.”

Jurors were told Kanagasingham was ‘highly psychotic’ at the time of the killing and also believed his victim was plotting to kill him.

Kanagasingham had known Ms Burgess for several years after the pair met in a London club and he had been visiting her flat each week to have a shower and talk about his problems.

He had already admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

He will be sentenced later today.