Thomas Hamilton McDowell (born 1977) is a British man who was convicted of the murder in 2002 of German trainee rabbi Andreas Hinz.
[3] Hinz, a 37-year-old trainee rabbi, gifted linguist and German national had spent the night of 3 July 2002 drinking alone in the Black Cap, a gay bar in Camden, North London.
[10] Barbara Hinz, his mother, returned home to Ulm, Germany after flying to London the following week to appeal for help finding her son.
[14] At the trial of McDowell in September 2004, it was revealed that as a child he had been abused by a relative and grew up with a sense of hatred towards homosexuals, as well as suffering from a personality disorder.
[16] McDowell admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, and was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment at Southwark Crown Court on 30 September 2004.