Tower Hamlets: Cemetery hammer killer jailed for life

The Old Bailey judge said Erik Feld, 38, was "obsessed with violence" and jailed him for at least 28 years

A man has been jailed for life for the "horrific and abhorrent" murder of a stranger he bludgeoned to death with a claw hammer in east London.

Erik Feld, 38, struck Ranjith Kankanamalage at least 12 times in the head at a Tower Hamlets cemetery in the early hours of 16 August 2021.

The judge at the Old Bailey said Feld had a "long held fantasy" to kill a stranger with a hammer.

On Wednesday he was jailed for life with a minimum term of 28 years.

A Sri-Lankan national, Mr Kankanamalage, 50, had moved to the UK to study, leaving behind his wife and children.

In a statement read out to the court, his daughter, Hiruni Kankanamalage - who watched proceedings via videolink from Sri Lanka - described her father as her "best friend" who was "brutally murdered before his dreams could come true".

While in London, Mr Kankanamalage was in a civil partnership with another man for a few years, who called him a "kind and gentle" person, the court heard.

Overseeing proceedings, Mr Justice Bryan KC described the murder as "selfish, callous and abhorrent."

He added, that why the victim was in a park at such hours was "unknown and irrelevant" and that he happened to be "in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Rajith Kankanamalage was studying in the hope of becoming an accountant

The court heard how Feld, of Tredegar Road, Bow, was lurking in the bushes of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, to "carry out his intention to murder a random stranger" on 16 August 2021.

He then hit his victim with both sides of the hammer repeatedly, causing skull fractures and penetrating the brain.

Defence wounds on the victim's hands and arms were indicative of a struggle during the "frenzied" attack, the judge said, and that at least three of the sustained blows were sufficient enough to have been fatal.

The victim was later found by a member of the public in the cemetery park later that morning.

Mr Justice Bryan said the attack at the "creepy" cemetery fulfilled Feld's "depraved" fantasies.

Feld was found guilty of murder in March.

During the investigation the Met Police had found numerous heavy-duty hammers in Feld's house, and upon searching his phone, found he frequently watched graphic hammer-based attack videos.

Feld also had 10 previous convictions for 18 offences between 2002 to August 2021.

Among these was an incident on the Tube whereby he sexually assaulted a woman, held an axe to passengers faces and spray-painted his own face and the word 'kill' on the windows.

Defending, Andrew Morris highlighted Feld's "severe personality disorder" and said he had grown up in an "abusive household".

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