A Sri Lankan man who claimed he was acting in self-defence when he hacked his estranged wife to death in their Melbourne home has been found guilty of murder.
A Victorian supreme court jury took less than three hours to deliberate before convicting Dinush Kurera, 47, of murder on Friday.
He faced a month-long trial over the death of his wife, Nelomie Perera.
Kurera admitted to killing her on 3 December 2022, but pleaded not guilty to murder and claimed he acted in self-defence.
During the trial, the couple’s two teenage children gave evidence about their mother’s final moments.
Their daughter, who was 16 at the time of the murder, said Kurera came to their house armed with an axe and threatened to burn the property down if they tried to contact police.
She said her mother was already bleeding from the head when she came downstairs. When her brother tried to flee, Kurera chased after him with the axe, the court heard.
The teen told the jury she ran to the bathroom and tried to call triple-zero but the calls did not connect.
She then heard her mother’s screams so she ran back into the kitchen and saw Kurera holding an axe and hovering over Perera, who was bleeding on the kitchen floor.
Perera’s screams for help were captured on a safety watch and played to the jury.
Kurera then grabbed a knife and used it and the axe to strike and stab Perera repeatedly in the neck and upper body, their daughter said. Perera yelled out “I’m dead” as she was attacked and the girl ran from the house to her neighbours next door.
CCTV footage played to the jury showed her banging on the front door, saying “Dad’s killing Mum” and “I’m pretty sure she’s dead”.
Kurera took the stand during his trial, telling the jury Perera had threatened him with a knife and bit his finger during a heated argument in their Melbourne home.
He claimed to be scared she was going to attack him when he grabbed an axe and hit her “only a couple of times”.
Perera, 43, was found dead in a pool of blood with 35 separate wounds, prosecutors told the jury.
Kurera also denied assaulting his 17-year-old son by striking him with an axe as the teen tried to flee the house during the altercation.
The teenage boy described to the jury how Kurera attacked him before someone, believed to be Perera, dragged his father off him.
The jury retired to consider their verdicts on Friday after hearing four weeks of evidence.
The jury returned their guilty verdicts for Perera’s murder and the assault of his son at 2pm on Friday.
Kurera looked straight ahead as the verdicts were handed down.
He was returned to custody and will be sentenced at a later date. (The Guardian)
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