A shopkeeper has admitted to manslaughter after slitting the throats of his two young children, aged three-year-old and 19 months, while his wife was in the shower before turning the knife on himself. Nadarajah Nithiyakumar, 41-year-old, attacked his daughter Pavinya and son Nigash at the family home in Ilford, east London, during the lockdown on 26 April.
The children’s mother, named locally as Nisa, was in the shower at the time of the killings and alerted police.
Pavinya, aged 19 months, was pronounced dead at the scene while three-year-old Nigash was rushed to hospital in Whitechapel but he also died.
Nithiyakumar required hospital treatment after causing a ‘very serious injury’ to himself during the knife attack, the court heard.
Upon being discharged, the shop worker was charged with murdering the children.
In a police interview, Nithiyakumar described to officers in detail’ how he killed his children with a knife because he had wanted to take his own life and believed they would suffer without him.
He said he had been depressed and while working in a shop, customers had ‘upset him’.
He had thought about killing himself, but considered it would ‘ruin the children’s lives and they would go off the rails’, a court previously heard.
Assisted in the dock today by a Tamil interpreter, the defendant wore a dark blue hoodie and white shirt with a surgical mask as he appeared before Mrs Justice Cutts at the Old Bailey.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter by diminished responsibility, which was accepted by the prosecution.
The children’s mother wept in court as the defendant pleaded guilty to manslaughter but not guilty to murder.
She was supported by her sister, who was also tearful and assisted by a Tamil interpreter.
Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC told the court psychiatrists had agreed the defendant suffered from a delusional disorder.
He said the case was “on any view of the very greatest seriousness” and had been considered with great care by the prosecution.
“It is clear from the unanimous opinion of very experienced psychiatrists that this defendant was at the time of these offences suffering from a delusional disorder,” Atkinson said.
“It was one from which he had suffered for some time, for the best part of ten years. with very little indication and very little treatment.”
The prosecutor said it had been considered by one expert “remarkable he was able to function for as long as he did”.
Atkinson added: “It was clear it was that disorder that led him to kill his children.”
There is no other explanation for his behavior’ other than that which he accepted he did, the lawyer said.
Atkinson said: “In those circumstances, the Crown took the view it is appropriate to accept the plea of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.”
He asked the murder charges to be left on the court file.
Justice Cutts agreed and adjourned the sentencing until 10 December.
She said she will consider a hospital order and whether Nithiyakumar poses a danger to the public at that hearing.
The judge told Nithiyakumar: “I’m not going to sentence you today. I need further information from the doctors and to hear from the evidence in person before I can decide what the appropriate sentence should be.”
Nithiyakumar was sent back to the medium secure mental health centre in east London where he has been treated.
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