Man admits slitting throat of his two young children, while his wife was in shower

A father has admitted slitting the throats of his two young children aged three and 19 months, during the lockdown on April 26.

Nadarajah Nithiyakumar, 41, attacked his daughter Pavinya and son Nigash at the family home in Ilford, east London.

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 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.+3

He remained expressionless as family members wept throughout the hearing in the well of the court.