His Majesty’s Service Delivered Bombs For Murder

By Tassie Seneviratne –AUGUST 1, 2021

Tassie Seneviratne

Four bombs carried by post when postage stamps still bore the portrait of King George V1, created a most fascinating case of a paedophile’s infatuation for a schoolboy. That His Majesty’s Service delivered bombs for murder, it was then said. Mixed with unreasonable expectations bordering madness, rolled up in hatred, he ingeniously planned to murder the boy he failed to get for keeps, and many others who stood in his way.

Lenaduwa Lokuge Jayawardene, (LL J) although not an expert tailor himself, selected a business of tailoring. He got hold of a rickety old sewing machine, and then a new one on hire-purchase. He then transferred the parts of the new machine to his old machine and then defaulted payment. The hire-purchase company seized their machine, and LL J thus acquired a new machine for nothing.

LL J next hired expert tailors to work in his establishment which he named “Jayasiri Tailoring Mart” (JTM). He then specialized in the art of making shirts and shorts for boys. Shirts and shorts made at JTM soon became a fad and JTM became a haunt for boys. He also acquired a motor cycle and often took the boys for ‘rides.’ Many of these boys, consented to doing the what comes unnaturally by LL J for goodies showered on them.

S. M. Samarasinghe, born on 11th Nov. 1930, was the youngest in a family of four children. The father was a cultivator, and the elder children were fairly well educated and well to do. The elder siblings took the education of the youngest in their hands and admitted him to Dharmaraja College, a leading school in Kandy.

Although there was the desire on the part of the elder siblings to give him of the best, they did not have sufficient means to board him in the college hostel, and had to settle for places they could afford. One such place the boy was boarded was ‘Jayasiri Tailoring Mart’ belonging to LL J. A brotherly relationship was developed by LL J towards the boy whom he showered with gifts. Thereafter he started to commit ‘unnatural offence’ on him forcibly which the boy loathed and wanted to find a boarding elsewhere. The boy contacted a family friend, Kodikara, who found him lodging in the house of Alwis Appuhamy, the owner of Fancy Stores in Kandy. The accused kept bothering Kodikara and Alwis Appuhamy to send the boy back to him. His reason that the boy, due to his pleasant appearance, was a good omen for his business, was a canny subterfuge for his homosexual desire.

When all his entreaties failed, he started to threaten that he will kill the boy if he does not come back to him. At this stage, in order to keep the boy out of reach of the accused, his elder brother, Podi Nilame, arranged with one Jayasinghe, the Assistant Manager of the Tarzan Office in Kadugannawa, for the boy to stay in his office, and on 3rd March 1947 the boy left Alwis Appuhamy’s house.

A few days after the boy went to reside in the Tarzan Office, the accused started to visit there and wanted jayasinghe to send back the boy to him. On 27th March the accused had met the boy on the road and assaulted him. On a complaint to the police a case had been filed in courts under the Vagrants Ordinance against the accused. The accused had prevailed on Podi Nilame to have the case withdrawn, but to no avail. The case was heard on 14th August 1947 and the accused convicted and fined Rs. 5/= With that the affection that the accused had for the boy turned into hatred.

Thereupon, the accused started to make threats that were not taken seriously at the start. But persistent threats he had conveyed to a close friend of his, K. T. Simon, that he would send explosive parcels to the boy and his siblings, put Simon on the alert and he sent out warnings to the boy and his siblings.

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