Was Matt Ratana’s killer planning revenge? ‘One factor’ in murderer’s decision to carry a firearm on night he shot policeman ‘was history of volatile relations with his father’, according to prosecutor
- Louis De Zoysa shot dead Matt Ratana in a custody block in Croydon in 2020
When Louis De Zoysa set off at midnight on September 25, 2020 with a loaded gun strapped under his arm and bag of bullets in the other, he appeared to be on a mission.
His plans on that fateful night have never been established because the 23-year-old had told no one beforehand, and now brain damaged through his own self-inflicted gun wound, he is no longer able to share that secret.
But shortly after he was charged with murder, prosecutors provided their theory of why he was walking towards his parents’ home in the middle of the night with a lethal weapon.
After the court were told about a difficult upbringing, could it be that the autistic loner wanted his revenge?
Prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward told the Old Bailey: ‘His motives for carrying the firearm and discharging it at Ratana remain somewhat unclear.
Louis De Zoysa in London Road, Norbury, when he was first approached by members of a police patrol
When Louis De Zoysa (pictured) set off at midnight on September 25, 2020 with a loaded gun strapped under his arm and bag of bullets in the other, he appeared to be on a mission
Kiwi-born police officer Matt Ratana was shot dead by Louis De Zoysa in September 2020
‘One factor aside from his interest in firearms, ammunition and extreme violence is a past history of volatile relations between the defendant and his father and other members of the family.
‘He was no longer living at the family address.
‘The place where he was stopped was relatively close to that address.’
The horrifying conclusion that De Zoysa may have been planning an attack on his family home will shock many in their local community who may have assumed he had an idyllic upbringing.
His parents regularly appeared in the local paper where his father Sri Lanka-born Channa, and mother Elizabeth, both 58, were portrayed as Roman Catholic churchgoers, keen members of the community, and enthusiastic cyclists.
They ran cycling groups for children, and in 2007 won a ‘Green Household’ award for their ecological awareness.
De Zoysa’s electronics engineer –turned yoga teacher father kept bees, and played badminton.
A trustee of the Sri Lankan Christian Association, the father-of-five was known locally as ‘Dr Bike’ for his free bicycle repair clinics, boasting that he left children ‘safe and happy’ at his publicly-funded ‘Cycling Academy’.
De Zoysa’s mother Elizabeth, a Dutch-English translator, won 550 votes as a Green candidate in Croydon’s 2010 council elections.
Outwardly they appeared an accomplished family, with one of their children studying a masters at Oxford and straight-A student De Zoysa had just secured a job as a coder for a government department.
But behind the front door of the family’s three-bed home in Norbury, south London, the reality was very different.
The horrifying conclusion that De Zoysa may have been planning an attack on his family home will shock many in their local community who may have assumed he had an idyllic upbringing
The revolver used by Louis De Zoysa to shoot Metropolitan Police officer Matt Ratana
At Northampton Crown Court, De Zoysa painted a disturbing picture of his father describing him as a ‘criminal’ and former ‘drug dealer’ hooked on cocaine for a decade.
Throughout much of the trial, the brain damaged defendant’s answers were confined to one word and he relied on a white board to communicate.
But when asked about his father, De Zoysa suddenly became animated, talking about how he had been beaten for even the most ‘trivial’ things.
De Zoysa described ‘crazy violence’ at the dinner table, drawing a picture of a child trying to protect himself from his father, whom he accused of once pulling a knife on a member of the family.
On one occasion, he claimed his father threw a piece of wood which struck De Zoysa on the face scarring him.
Another time, Channa was arrested for assault after allegedly hitting his son so hard with a wooden slat that he broke his foot.
When officers arrived, they were told De Zoysa had previously been attacked by his father on holiday in Sri Lanka, leaving him requiring stitches to the back of the head.
Social workers frequented the home for a decade to monitor the children’s safety and Elizabeth took out a restraining order against her husband, cutting him off financially before they later reconciled.
Police were repeatedly called over domestic violence incidents, but as he grew older De Zoysa hit back.
He admitted battering his father with a metal rod, setting fire to a bedroom carpet, breaking stairs and fighting with his father, kicking him off his bike in 2019.
When asked how he felt about the violence, De Zoysa’s reply was chilling.
‘Brewing’, he said.
Mr De Zoysa, who operates as ‘Channa Yoga’ and promises to ‘help you attain happiness’, was not in court to hear the allegations of violence, which were presented to jurors as ‘agreed facts’.
Sergeant Matt Ratana
He did not respond to requests for comment.
Aside from what was said in court about the violence at home, De Zoysa was mercilessly bullied at school by classmates who threw chains at him.
Known as an un-sporty ‘very clever maths geek’ and prize winner, he excelled academically, achieving straight As at A-level at the Catholic John Fisher secondary in Purley, south London,
But De Zoysa, who was diagnosed with autism aged 13, struggled to make any friends.
One clinical psychologist said his ‘difficulties in social interaction, restricted interests and some rigidity in his way of thinking’ indicated Asperger’s Syndrome.
However, De Zoysa had an arrogant streak, writing in his school yearbook: ‘Do what you must, for I have already won.’
Fellow pupils recall an interest in armoury that led to him being disciplined for bringing an air gun to school.
One classmate joked in the official leavers’ book, he was ‘good with weapons’.
De Zoysa boasted of surfing the ‘dark web’.
One friend, who recalled De Zoysa designed weapons on school computers, said: ‘He used to brag about he could see hitmen and guns for sale, and used to watch murder videos… ISIS videos and things like that.
‘You’ve got kids playing outside or doing homework – and he was in the corner watching these videos.’
When he progressed to studying mechanical engineering at University College London, De Zoysa was pictured smiling as he brandished a medieval broad sword in 2017.
Two years before the murder, De Zoysa was referred to the Home Office’s ‘Prevent’ de-radicalisation programme over fears he ‘had extreme Islamist and right wing views’.
But he was assessed as ‘posing no threat’.
He dropped out of university after a year, but managed to hold down a job as a data analyst at Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in Croydon, where colleagues praised his ability to write computer code from scratch.
But behind the scenes, De Zoysa was smoking increasing amounts of cannabis.
He described his typical day as ‘weed, oven, gym, food, bath.’
Seeking solitude, the 23-year-old left the family home to live eight miles away on a farm in Banstead, Surrey
There, he secretly purchased an antique revolver from an online auction, for which no gun licence was required as the firearm was considered obsolete with bullets no longer available.
But De Zoysa set about purchasing primers, casings and lead balls to make bullets for the weapon, which he test fired at the farm to ensure it worked.
The killer has never told police what he planned to do that night he was arrested minutes from his parents’ home carrying a loaded gun under his arm and a bag of bullets and cannabis in the other.
But whatever his intentions, his parents were clear who was at fault.
The morning after the shooting the couple were sat handcuffed on the sofa as police raided their £600,000 home.
Afterwards, they told fringe online magazine The Upsetter, police had ‘failed’ their son.
A resulting article suggested police blunders were to blame for Sergeant Ratana’s death, and that the officer’s family could be due compensation from the force – rather than from De Zoysa.
The parents complained after the Independent Office for Police Conduct suggested there had been no misconduct by the officers who failed to find their son’s firearm prior to the shooting.
Mrs De Zoysa said: ‘Louis was hung drawn and quartered by this press release. As Louis’ family, we want justice but we want the truth more than anything, truth and reconciliation. People aren’t thinking the police have done something wrong.’
She said it was wrong that police had seized a drawing of ‘two officers and a gun’ scrawled by her son in hospital when he was recovering after shooting himself in the neck.
‘He drew a picture of what happened because he’s been very, very anxious about the police presence, and the police took it. He showed it to his consultant. Louis hasn’t been able to sleep very well and the consultant speculated it was because of the police presence this triggered something,’ she said.
She accused police of controlling their visits, letters and calls to their son in prison.
Mrs De Zoysa went on to say her son should have had an appropriate adult present at the custody suite, adding: ‘I’m quite concerned that the IOPC hasn’t followed up on how the police have conducted the investigation.
‘We are coming at this as a police failing that not only failed our son but the police sergeant.’
Now after he was convicted of murder yesterday, the jury knew where they directed the blame.
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