London: A man and a teenager have been arrested on suspicion of murdering a pizza delivery driver in Sheffield, as reported by the BBC.
Thavisha Lakindu Peiris, 25, was found dead by colleagues in his car in Southey Crescent, Sheffield, on Sunday. He had been stabbed in the chest.
He had been making his final delivery for Domino’s Pizza before he was due to start a new job as an IT consultant.
South Yorkshire Police first arrested a boy, 17, on Thursday evening and a man, aged 25, later the same night.
Both are being held in custody for questioning.
When Peiris arrived in Britain to complete his education, his family believed he was entering a land of opportunity.
They were convinced his move from Sri Lanka to Sheffield would guarantee him a bright future in a safer world.
But since he was stabbed to death at the wheel of his car in an apparently random attack, those illusions were shattered - and his parents left nursing “a broken heart”.
His anguished father Sarath Peiris, 66, and mother Sudarma Narangoda paid tribute to their “caring and loving son” in a statement issued from their home on the edge of Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital.
They said: “We were devastated and shocked to hear of our son’s tragic end and we are still unable to comprehend that he is actually gone.
“Thavisha was one of the most caring and loving sons a parent could have. He was full of life and always had a smile on his face. Anyone who met him immediately liked him. He was a deeply religious boy who would not even harm an ant.”
They added: “We sent our son to the UK to study so he can have a better life. Now we are left with only a broken heart.”
Peiris, a university graduate, was delivering his final pizza on his last ever shift as a Domino’s driver when he was attacked and stabbed to death at around 10pm on Sunday.
After he failed to make the delivery, his colleagues went looking for him and found him dying inside the vehicle.
Brother Pramod Peiris, 26, a software engineer, said his younger brother “was the centre of our world”.
“He gave us so many reasons to smile,” he said, adding: “He was kind and considerate and we were extremely proud of his achievements. We were so happy that he was doing so well in England.
“We never thought his life was in any danger. I can’t believe he was taken away from us in this cruel and inhuman manner.”
The son of a retired company store manager, Mr Peiris grew up in a modest suburban bungalow. Friends said that like many families in Sri Lanka, his parents believed passionately in working hard and bettering their position through education.
That was why they had used the family’s savings to help Thavisha travel to the UK and study in Sheffield, regularly sending over money out of their pensions to support him.
Mr Peiris arrived in Sheffield in 2011 and graduated within a year. He quickly became close to a group of IT students from his homeland.
They lived in a shared house, worked at Domino’s to pay their way and planned a future in the lucrative world of computers.
A cricket fan, he would go for a swim or to the gym at his local sports centre, worked hard and socialised with his tight-knit group of friends.
He was about to join forces with his Sri Lankan housemates to set up a company, planning to use his computer skills to become an IT consultant.
The bold entrepreneurial move was the culmination of all his dreams, and its success would have made the sacrifices his parents made to send him to the UK worthwhile.
But last night they were preparing to fly to the UK to oversee their son’s murder investigation, after Domino’s stepped in to fund the flights.
Speaking at the family home, Thavisha’s cousins - Manisha and Nimalee - spoke of the tragedy of a “jovial, playful, helpful” man murdered as he tried to “improve” himself.
“We are still shocked that this could have happened in Britain,” Manisha said. “He was such a nice, quiet, respectful man that it is hard to believe anyone could do something like this. It is a waste of a good life.
“He loved his family and his education, one went with the other. He wanted to progress, to make a success of his life and we were expecting that he would come back to us very soon.”
Detective Superintendent Lisa Ray, who is leading the investigation, said: “I cannot begin to imagine the heartache and pain the family will be going through, heightened by the fact they are thousands of miles away.
“Thavisha’s parents had sent him to the UK to study so he could build a successful life, and that opportunity has now been taken from him in the most tragic and brutal manner.”
