Depressed and delusional father killed his two children during lockdown

A DEPRESSED father has admitted slitting the throats of his two young children during lockdown.

Nadarajah Nithiyakumar, 41, attacked his daughter Pavinya, aged 19 months, and three-year-old son Nigash at the family home in Aldborough Road North, Ilford, east London, on April 26.

The children’s mother, named locally as Nisa, was in the shower at the time of the killings and alerted police.

Pavinya was pronounced dead at the scene while Nigash was rushed to hospital in Whitechapel but he also died.

Their father was taken to hospital for treatment for knife wounds.

Upon being discharged, the shop worker was charged with murdering the children.

In a police interview, Nithiyakumar accepted he had killed his daughter and son with a knife.

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.

Yesterday, the defendant 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,” Mr Atkinson said.

“It was one from which he had suffered for some time, for the best part of 10 years. with very little indication and very little treatment.”

Mrs Justice Cutts adjourned the sentencing until December 10 and said she will consider a hospital order.