12 Facts About Sonia Burgess

Sonia Burgess grew up in Castleford, West Yorkshire, with her mother, Comfort, a secondary-school headteacher, and older sister, Ros.

Sonia Burgess acquired a reputation for showing great kindness to her clients, helping them financially and with housing.

In 1985, Sonia Burgess married Youdon Lhamo, a Tibetan refugee working as a nurse in the UK and one of Winstanley-Sonia Burgess's former clients.

In Rees v the United Kingdom, Burgess represented Mark Rees, a British trans man who asked the government to amend his birth certificate to allow him to marry a woman.

Also in 1986, Sonia Burgess represented Viraj Mendis, a Sri Lankan national who claimed the right of sanctuary at the Church of the Ascension in Hulme, Manchester.

Winstanley-Sonia Burgess obtained several landmark decisions or changes in the law.

Sonia Burgess stopped their deportation by requesting a judicial review of the decision not to grant them asylum.

Sonia Burgess won at the court of appeal, but the House of Lords overturned the decision, and the group was sent back to Sri Lanka.

Thirty minutes before the aircraft deporting him was due to take off, Sonia Burgess applied to a duty judge to defer removal.

In October 2010, Sonia Burgess was killed after being pushed in front of a Piccadilly Line tube train at King's Cross St Pancras tube station in central London during the evening rush hour.

One hour later, Sonia Burgess was pushed under an eastbound train.

Sonia Burgess was found dead on 8 April 2013 in his prison cell in Belmarsh Prison with a plastic bag over his head.