Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Man posts Liam Neeson's famous Taken quote on Facebook, ruins medical career

The University of Leicester medical school deemed Ravindu Thilakawardhana 'unfit to practice medicine'

Alexandra Sims
Friday 27 November 2015 14:16 GMT
Comments
Half-cocked: Liam Neeson in the preposterous 'Taken 2'
Half-cocked: Liam Neeson in the preposterous 'Taken 2' (20th Century Fox)

A trainee doctor’s career has been scuppered after he posted a famous Liam Neeson quote from the film Taken on his Facebook page.

Ravindu Thilakawardhana, who was in his fourth year studying medicine at the University of Leicester, became furious when a fellow student posted explicit pictures of his friend onto the social networking site.

Mr Thilakawardhana retorted with a photo of the actor Liam Neeson accompanied by the words: “I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you,” the Leicester Mercury reports.

He later sent a private message to the student saying: “I don’t want to see you on a night out in Leicester, or in the UK.”

The student reported Mr Thilakawardhana to the medical school who reprimanded him, before deeming him “unfit to practice medicine”.

He was dropped from the medical course by disciplinary panel in April last year.

Mr Thilakawardhana appealed the decision to independent adjudicator and to London’s High Court.

An appeal hearing is due to take place this month, according to The Leicester Mercury.

His lawyer, Clive Newton QC, said Mr Thilakawardhana was sorry for his actions and claimed his punishment was severe.

Mr Newton said police had taken no action against Mr Thilakawardhana, and he believed the student who posted the explicit pictures in 2013, had "carefully planned revenge" by "targeting [Mr Thilakawardhana] future medical career".

The university’s decision was upheld by the judge, however, who ruled the panel were correct to conclude Mr Thilakawardhana's actions were “fundamentally incompatible with continuing on a medical course or even practicing as a doctor.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in