A cross-dressing solicitor died instantly after being pushed by a fellow transsexual under the wheels of a Tube train, a court heard.

Renowned human rights solicitor Sonia Burgess, who worked in Wood Green, died instantly after being hit by a westbound Piccadilly line train at King’s Cross St Pancras Tube station.

The 63-year-old, who was born and worked as a man named David, had earlier accompanied paranoid schizophrenic Senthooran Kanagasingham to an appointment at a GP surgery near his Cricklewood home.

Deliberate

Ms Burgess, a divorced father-of-three who lived in Shaftesbury Avenue, central London, but worked for law firm Luqmani Thompson and Partners in the High Road, was content to remain biologically male and had not tried to physically change her gender.

Sri Lanka-born Kanagasingham, also known as Nina, had been in the process of taking hormone therapy to change his gender but was visiting his doctor to ask for anti-depressants when the killing occurred on October 25 last year.

The 35-year-old has pleaded not guilty to murder but admits manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Brian Altman QC, prosecuting, told the Old Bailey on Monday that Kanagasingham’s actions were “entirely deliberate and executed with the intention of killing Sonia Burgess”.

He said: “After all, it could hardly have been done with any lesser intention than to send her to her death.”

Ms Burgess had known her killer for several years after they met in a London club.

Kanagasingham, who moved to the UK in 2000, took to visiting her flat each week to have a shower and talk about his problems. Over time, his victim told friends and family that he thought Kanagasingham was becoming “psychotic” and she did not know how to make him leave her flat, said Mr Altman.

The court heard that on the day of her death, the lawyer had agreed to take Kanagasingham to a GP appointment near his home in Chichele Road, Cricklewood.

The pair met at the exit to Cricklewood Station at around 5pm, before walking towards the GP surgery for their 5.30pm appointment, where Kanagasingham agreed to let her chaperone sit in on the consultation.

“During the appointment, Sonia asked if she could speak,” said Mr Altman.

“She indicated she was concerned about Nina’s levels of stress and anxiety. It is significant that, according to the doctor, the defendant clearly disapproved of Sonia’s opinion of him. He uttered a firm ‘no’.

“The doctor, sensing the tension, told the defendant that Sonia had only said these things because she was concerned about him, and cared.”

At around 6.35pm on the return journey, the pair were shown on CCTV waiting at the westbound Piccadilly line platform at King’s Cross St Pancras when Kanagasingham shoved his victim into the path of an oncoming train.

The trial continues.