Dino Donaldson

Introduction

Dino Donaldson is a 22-year-old man from Ealing in west London who was jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years for the murder of Anojan Gnaneswaran, a 21-year-old accounting and finance student stabbed to death on the railway tracks at Strawberry Hill station in Twickenham, south-west London, in January 2024. Donaldson, who was 19 at the time of the attack, chased the student onto the tracks and stabbed him in the chest as he lay defenceless on the ground after a fight between two groups of young men over a £50 drug deal. Less than an hour after the killing, he was captured on CCTV smiling and laughing on a night bus, and recorded on a doorbell camera boasting: “I stabbed him through the back bro, I stabbed him fully. I watched it and I felt it go in him, yeah.” He was convicted of murder following a retrial at the Old Bailey and sentenced on November 6, 2026.

Background Information

The killing had its origins in an arranged drug deal. Two groups of young men agreed to meet at Strawberry Hill station on the night of January 8, 2024, over the sale of 10 MDMA tablets for £50. A fight broke out between the groups on the platform. Judge Rafferty told Donaldson that tensions rose as members of his group were “being challenged and asked to identify themselves,” and that the confrontation escalated after Gnaneswaran’s younger brother Ashvin arrived at the station with friends. Gnaneswaran was studying accounting and finance and, his family told the court, was academically gifted, talented at sport and held a black belt in karate.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Donaldson was found guilty following a retrial of murdering student Anojan Gnaneswaran at Strawberry Hill station in January 2024 and was ordered to serve a minimum of 23 years.

Judge Angela Rafferty KC, sentencing at the Old Bailey, described how what had begun as “an unpleasant encounter between two groups of young men rapidly descended into violent chaos.” Donaldson stabbed Gnaneswaran once in the abdomen, causing him to flee onto the railway tracks; Donaldson followed him onto the tracks and stabbed him in the chest as he lay on the ground. The judge called it “a savage and merciless killing of a helpless young man who was on the ground.” Gnaneswaran died at the scene shortly after midnight on January 9, 2024.

Donaldson’s conduct after the killing became part of the case against him. Less than an hour after the victim was pronounced dead, night-bus CCTV showed him smiling and laughing, and the audio of a doorbell camera recorded his boast about the stabbing. Police found him three days later hiding in a cupboard at his home, where officers recovered 74 wraps of crack and heroin with a street value of more than £1,000 from his bedroom. He denied murder but was convicted by a unanimous verdict following the retrial at the Old Bailey in April 2026. In mitigation, his barrister Dean George KC cited a “significant history of substantial trauma which has been verified by social services,” including physical, emotional and mental punishment.

Public Reaction and Consequences

Victim impact statements from Gnaneswaran’s family were read to the court. His brother Ashvin, who witnessed the murder and performed CPR, said: “I know I will never meet anyone like him ever again. I refused to believe my brother passed away to the point where I continued doing CPR even though I know he’d stopped breathing.” His father Nesar described his eldest son as academically gifted and talented in sport. British Transport Police, whose Major, Serious and Organised Crime unit investigated, described the killing as a shocking act of violence in a public place; the station was forced to close while detectives and forensic officers worked the scene.

Current Status

Donaldson is serving a life sentence and will remain in prison until at least his mid-forties, subject to any future Parole Board decision, after Judge Rafferty set the minimum term at 23 years on November 6, 2026. The 74 wraps of crack and heroin officers found in his bedroom at the time of his arrest stand alongside the murder in the public record of the case. The minimum term means the earliest he can be considered for release is around 2047.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Donaldson was 19 when he killed Gnaneswaran and 22 when the life term was imposed; the sentence’s arithmetic means the whole of his twenties and thirties will be spent in custody. His post-killing boast — recorded, played in open court, and quoted in national reporting — fixed the public image of the case as a killing treated not as a tragedy acknowledged but as a trophy described. For the station’s users and the Twickenham community, the January 2024 closure of Strawberry Hill for the forensic investigation marked the day a routine drug transaction among young men became a fatal stabbing on live rail tracks.

Sources

• BBC News, “Murderer who stabbed student at Strawberry Hill station jailed,” November 6, 2026. source
• PA News / Lynn News, “Train tracks murderer who bragged about attack on student jailed for life,” November 6, 2026. source
• Evening Standard, “Drug dealer who boasted ‘I stabbed him’ after Strawberry Hill murder jailed for life,” November 2026. source