Dino Donaldson, 22, has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 23 years for the murder of Anojan Gnaneswaran, 21, who was stabbed to death at Strawberry Hill station in Twickenham in January 2024. Donaldson followed Mr. Gnaneswaran onto the railway tracks after a confrontation escalated from a drug deal involving MDMA tablets. Mr. Gnaneswaran, who was studying accounting and finance, died at the scene shortly after midnight on January 9.
Less than an hour after the fatal stabbing, Donaldson was recorded on CCTV smiling on a night bus and on a doorbell camera audio saying, "I stabbed him through the back bro, I stabbed him fully. I watched it and I felt it go in him, yeah." Police apprehended Donaldson three days later, finding him hiding in a cupboard at his home. Officers also discovered approximately £1,000 worth of crack and heroin in his bedroom.
Donaldson, who was 19 at the time of the attack, was found guilty of murder in April during a retrial at the Old Bailey. Sentencing him, Judge Angela Rafferty KC described the killing as "savage and merciless" and noted that the confrontation had rapidly descended into "violent chaos." The court heard that Donaldson had initially stabbed Mr. Gnaneswaran once in the abdomen, prompting the victim to flee onto the tracks, where Donaldson pursued and stabbed him again as he lay on the ground.
Mr. Gnaneswaran's brother, Ashvin, who witnessed the attack, told the court in a statement read by the prosecution, "I know I will never meet anyone like him ever again." He recounted continuing CPR on his brother despite knowing he had stopped breathing. The victim's father, Nesar Gnaneswaran, described his eldest son as academically gifted, talented in sports, and a black belt karate practitioner who had competed in world and European championships. "Our family will never be the same," he stated. "The impact of his loss is so much more than can be written down here or conveyed to the court."
Donaldson's defense counsel noted his client's "significant history of substantial trauma." The court also heard that Donaldson had a previous conviction for possession of a knife in 2025 and had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess class A drugs, for which he received a concurrent sentence. Detective Chief Inspector Paul Attwell of British Transport Police stated, "What started as an argument over a drug deal ended in a young man's future being stolen from him by a remorseless criminal."