A successful human rights lawyer who lived as a woman outside work was pushed under a Tube train by a preoperative transsexual whom he had befriended, a court heard.

David Burgess, 63, known as Sonia, died after falling under a Piccadilly Line train at King’s Cross Underground station on Oct 25 last year.

Senthooran Kanagasingham, 35, known as Nina, went on trial yesterday charged with his murder.
Mr Burgess, a divorced father of three, had built “an enviable and brilliant reputation” as a solicitor in human rights and immigration law.

“However, socially, the deceased lived as a woman and was known by friends and family as Sonia,” said Mr Altman.

“I intend to refer to the deceased throughout as of the female gender because that is the wish of her family.”
Mr Burgess was “gender-variant”, the court heard. He had not wished to have surgery to become a woman, but to all intents and purposes outside his professional life, he lived as a woman.
This was “accepted and embraced” by everyone, including his three children, the jury was told.
“A close friend states that physically Sonia presented as a good-looking, very slim, middle-aged woman,” said Mr Altman.
“Sonia was caring and generous with her time. She was tolerant of others and she habitually helped others with their problems.” Kanagasingham, of Cricklewood, north London, had been undergoing sex-change therapy at the time of Mr Burgess’s death. It had been his desire to “pass completely as a woman”, the court heard.
It may be true: "Only the Good Die Young?"