A psychopathic hammer attacker has been jailed for life after he fulfilled a "depraved fantasy" to kill a random stranger in a Gothic graveyard.
Erik Feld, 37, had a long-standing obsession with extreme violence before he killed Ranjith Kankanamalage in a premediated attack.
Prior to the incident, the Old Bailey heard Feld fed his fixation by buying a kitten in order to kill it and had watched “snuff films” online of men and women being bludgeoned with hammers.
In the early hours of August 16 2021, Feld hid in the shadows behind a monument in Tower Hamlets cemetery in east London before hitting his victim Ranjith Kankanamalage 12 times in the face and head with a claw hammer.
The 50-year-old victim was found with catastrophic injuries on a path through the cemetery later the same morning.
In his trial, Feld concocted what the judge described as a preposterous “cock-and-bull” story about the incident and launched a homophobic rant at the victim, who had an ex-wife and two children in Sri Lanka and an ex-civil partner in the UK.
Feld was found guilty of murder in March.
On Wednesday, Mr Justice Bryan jailed him for life with a minimum term of 28 years, describing his crime as a “horrific and abhorrent” murder.
He said that Feld had picked a “creepy and Gothic” setting because it fitted in with his long-standing desire to kill a stranger with a hammer and Mr Kankanamalage had the “severe misfortune” to encounter him.
Mr Justice Bryan told Feld his “selfish, callous, abhorrent actions carried out to fulfil your depraved fantasy” had a devastating impact on Mr Kankanamalage’s loved ones.
The judge agreed with barristers in the case that the starting point for sentencing was 25 years, rather than 30 years if murder was aggravated by hostility to his victim’s sexual orientation.
Feld had 10 previous convictions for 18 offences between 2002 and 2021, including criminal damage, sex assault, battery and possession of an offensive weapon.
On one occasion he had brandished an axe at passengers on the London Underground and sprayed black paint on his face and the word “kill” on a Tube window, the court was told.
Feld was arrested on August 20 2021 as he was awaiting sentence for waving a claw hammer outside a Poundland store two days after the killing.
An initial search of his home in Tower Hamlets uncovered two mallets and a sledge hammer in a hallway cupboard, and a third mallet in a living-room cupboard.
Later searches upon his re-arrest also turned another hammer and a cut-throat razor by Feld’s pillow.
A victim impact statement read in court by Prosecutor Paul Cavin KC from the victim’s daughter, Hiruni, described her father as a kind and friendly person, with life-long love of learning and an ambition to qualify in accountancy.
She said: “He was a senior bank manager in Sri Lanka, a very accomplished athlete who won gold medals and completed two degrees in Sri Lanka as well as academic courses in the UK.”
He was hoping to apply to become a British citizen and resume his career in banking, but was "brutally murdered” before his dream came true, she added.
In mitigation, Andrew Morris highlighted Feld’s “severe personality disorder”.
The defendant’s mother died when he was aged 11, he had no relationship with his father and grew up in an “abusive household”, Mr Morris said.
Feld stood with his arms crossed in the dock and made no reaction as he was sent down.
