Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo, 51, told an Old Bailey jury he was unhappy about Mr Muhammad ‘forcing’ his daughter to live as a Muslim.
A jilted husband accused of murdering his ex-wife with a crossbow claims the weapon went off ‘as he checked the safety catch.’
Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo, 51, claims he took two crossbows to ex-wife Devi’s home in Ilford, east London, as a ‘deterrent’ while he confronted her new husband Imtiaz Muhammad.
He told an Old Bailey jury he was unhappy about Mr Muhammad ‘forcing’ his daughter to live as a Muslim.
After being surprised while hiding in the shed, Unmathallegadoo claimed he chased Mr Muhammad through the house.
He insists one of the crossbows ‘just went’ as he checked the safety catch whilst aiming at the banisters to stop Mr Muhammad as he and Devi fled up the stairs.
Giving evidence today Unmathallegadoo told jurors he was ‘horrified’ at discovering he had mortally wounded Devi, by then using the Islamic married name Sana Muhammad.
But prosecutors claim he spent a year planning the murders of Devi, Mr Muhammad and her unborn child and amassed a terrifying cache of weapons and restraints to help him complete the ‘mission’.
Jurors heard he meticulously jotted down the comings and goings from the home and identified the shed as an ideal vantage point to watch the house.
Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo, 51, claims he took two crossbows to ex-wife Devi’s (pictured) home in Ilford, east London, as a ‘deterrent’ while he confronted her new husband Imtiaz Muhammad.
But rather than wait for the perfect time to strike as intended, Unmathallegadoo had to execute the plan as best he could after being disturbed, it is said.
Prosecutor Peter Wright QC quizzed Unmathallegadoo about text messages Devi sent to a solicitor friend of hers two months before she died.
The court heard how she described him as having given her a ‘death stare’ as well as ‘asking the kids weird questions about the house’ and ‘if we have a lock on the shed or not’.
‘By September you were in the final stages of your preparations for taking up position in the shed and mounting an attack on that family,’ Mr Wright suggested.
‘Why did you choose Monday 12 November to climb across the fences and into the shed?’
Unmathallegadoo explained that he ‘needed to confront Imtiaz’ and said he wanted to catch him alone whilst Mr Muhammad was out in the garden.?
He described spending around three hours hauling the two crossbows, a set of ladders, a knife and hammer, along with a variety of other belongings to the shed under cover of darkness the night before.
‘How long were you going to be prepared to wait in the shed in order to confront Imtiaz?’ Mr Wright asked.
The former hospital site manager replied: ‘Until tomorrow morning (12 November).’
The prosecutor pressed: ‘How did you know he was going to be in on that morning?’
‘Just a wild guess,’ Unmathallegadoo said.
Asked how he was intending to leave, he told jurors he would confront Mr Muhammad in the garden and, once they had spoken, his former love rival would simply let him out the front door.
‘After confronting and threatening him with a loaded crossbow?’ the prosecutor asked.
Unmathallegadoo replied: ‘Spoken with him.’
Mr Wright suggested he was forced to ‘spring into action’ when he saw Mr Muhammad coming towards the shed.
‘I am going to suggest to you that you did not want to discharge that crossbow at Imtiaz too soon, because those crossbows are difficult to reload,’ Mr Wright said.
‘You need to use both of your hands and your foot, so if you missed Imtiaz then you may be vulnerable to attack?’
When Unmathallegadoo replied ‘yes’, the prosecutor said: ‘But I am going to suggest that you did not fire at Imtiaz immediately because you had another target at the top of your list, didn’t you?
‘You needed two loaded crossbows in order to make sure that you shot Devi. That is the truth, isn’t it? And that is why you chased him with two crossbows, and with the knife, the hammer and the cable ties.
‘As you went into the house Imtiaz ran out of the front door, and any account of him going up the stairs is a lie, isn’t it?
‘But it is the best you can do to explain what you say happened. Just like all of your story is made up.
‘Having gone into that house with two loaded crossbows and as Devi went up the stairs you shot her, aiming for her, weren’t you?’
Unmathallegadoo repeatedly maintained the prosecutor was ‘incorrect’, but Mr Wright said:
‘Your plan was to shoot her in the abdomen, wasn’t it?
‘You wanted to kill both her and the baby, didn’t you?’
He conceded he ‘never once asked about the condition’ of his stricken ex-wife but said that was because his priority was on speaking with the ambulance crew.
‘The only thing you asked was for one of the policemen to scratch your back because you had an itch, wasn’t it?’ Mr Wright asked.
‘Yes,’ he replied.
Unmathallegadoo, of no fixed abode, denies murder and the attempted destruction of a child capable of being born alive.
The trial continues.