‘I’m sorry’ email after accidental killing of best friend
AN ACCLAIMED astrophysicist, suffering from mental illness, was accidentally killed by a close colleague from the University of Oxford after launching an unprovoked assault on him.
Professor Steven Rawlings, who had been taking the wrong medication after a breakdown, was killed by Dr Devinderjit Sivia, who was forced to restrain his ‘‘oldest and closest friend’’ in a headlock, an inquest was told.
After Rawlings had collapsed with the words, ‘‘goodbye, cruel world’’, Sivia had emailed his colleague’s wife, saying: ‘‘I’m terribly sorry but I have killed him, sorry, Devinder.’’
The inquest in Oxford was told that Rawlings’ mental health had been deteriorating in the days before his death on January 11 this year. When Rawlings’ wife went on a business trip to the United States, Sivia, a former Nasa worker who had been close to Rawlings since they had met as undergraduates at St John’s College, Cambridge, more than 30 years ago, invited his colleague to stay at his house near Abingdon.
He told the inquest that Rawlings, who had a breakdown in April last year, had been taking antidepressants rather than antipsychotic drugs.
Sivia said that Rawlings, 50, a tutor at St Peter’s College who had been a lead scientist in the world’s biggest radio telescope project, had been acting strangely at his house, on one occasion wrongly believing that the heterosexual pair were going to have a sexual liaison.
Sivia added that when he told Rawlings his wife would not like him drinking a Coke, his friend had reared up and clenched his fists. He said Rawlings then threatened to kill him before punching him. Sivia said he put the professor into a headlock.
The inquest was told that Rawlings then had a heart attack. Sivia said he thought that the astrophysicist was ‘‘playing dead’’ even as he said ‘‘goodbye, cruel world’’ before his body went limp.
Upon realising that his friend was dead, Sivia emailed the professor’s wife, Linda. She told the inquest that she was stunned by the message.
‘‘I couldn’t believe he was serious,’’ she said yesterday.
They later spoke on the phone. ‘‘Devinder was crying and said, ‘I have killed my best friend’,’’ she said.
After the death, Sivia was arrested, but no charges were brought. He told officers: ‘‘It’s not every day you expect to kill your best friend.’’
The coroner, Darren Salter, found the death had been accidental. ‘‘Devinder Sivia acted at all times in self-defence and out of fear.’’ The Times