A 16-year-old girl was forced to contemplate stabbing her father to save the life of her mother, a court has heard.
Dinush Kurera, 47, now stands accused of murdering his estranged wife Nelomi Perera, 43, in front of their children during an alleged rampage in the family home in Sandhurst, 37km southeast of Melbourne.
Kurera has pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court of Victoria to murder and another charge of assault against his 17-year old son during the same alleged attack.
The alleged killer is being represented by veteran Melbourne barrister John Desmond.
Last week, a jury had to listen to audio of Ms Perera’s final moments alive.
The audio had been captured on a special ‘safety watch’ issued to women who fear they might be at risk of harm from violent men.
In the opening address of the trial, the jury was taken through a graphic account of how police allege Kurera hacked and stabbed his estranged wife to death with a hatchet and kitchen knife.
Dinush Kurera, 47, stands accused of murdering his estranged wife Nelomi Perera, 43
HOW IT BEGAN
Kurera allegedly struck by surprise in the dead of night just weeks before Christmas in 2022, the court heard.
Dressed in black, police allege he hit Ms Perera over the head with a hatchet as she stood on the rear porch of the family home having a cigarette.
The jury heard the couple had been in the midst of an ugly divorce spurred on by allegations of previous domestic violence and infidelity.
Upstairs in their bedrooms, Billy and Suzy (not their real names) heard screams and rushed downstairs to investigate.
On the rear deck they saw a fuel container and their mother bleeding from her head.
Crown prosecutor Mark Gibson KC told the jury Kurera warned his kids if they alerted police or tried to leave he would set fire to the house.
‘He said that he would kill everyone, including himself, if the children tried to leave or tried to call the police. Suzy stood behind her father and tried to stop him from striking her mother with the hatchet,’ he said.
‘Her mother managed to get up and she told Suzy that Mr Kurera had hit her with the hatchet and showed (her) where she had been hit by Mr Kurera.’
The jury heard Ms Perera begged for an ambulance and attempted to convince her estranged husband she would not call the police.
She was permitted to go to the bathroom while Kurera allegedly went about interrogating his children about whom his estranged wife might be seeing.
He told the kids he would be staying in the home, despite having an intervention order handed to him two days earlier forbidding him from going anywhere near it, the jury heard.
The Sandhurst property where the bloody murder allegedly happened
The court heard that asked if they would want to live with him, Suzy declined the offer.
‘Do you think I would want to live with you after threatening mum with an axe,’ she told him.
Kurera shouted back that her mother had ruined his life and had taken everything from him.
‘He called her a whore and accused her of sleeping with other men,’ Mr Gibson said.
FATEFUL DECISION
Kurera again asked the children if they knew whether their mother was seeing anyone.
The jury heard Ms Perera had just months earlier began a new relationship with a man.
‘Billy, who thought that instead of trying to make the situation worse by naming (that man), told his father that Nelomie was seeing a few people,’ Mr Gibson said.
‘This unfortunate comment by Billy, the Crown says, caused Mr Kurera to become more infuriated with Nelomie.’
Graphic video and photos of the bloody aftermath of what allegedly happened next were shown to the jury.
The jury heard Kurera approached his estranged wife and struck her body with the hatchet multiple times.
When his son attempted to flee, he was allegedly chased down by his father and struck in the back with the same hatchet.
The jury heard Ms Perera fought desperately to save her son, screaming at Kurera to ‘get off him’.
Her efforts allowed Billy to escape, leaving his sister to allegedly witness what came next.
Dinush Kurera makes his way into the Supreme Court of Victoria on Wednesday
FINAL FIGHT
The jury heard with her safety watch now activated, authorities were able to hear Ms Perera’s desperate cries for help – 19 in total.
Police scrambled to respond, but it would be too late.
Still in the home, Suzy saw a trail of blood leading into the kitchen and bravely went in to investigate.
The jury heard she saw Kurera still armed with the hatchet standing over her mother.
‘He opened the kitchen knife drawer and Suzy pushed the drawer shut, which jammed Mr Kurera’s fingers,’ Mr Gibson said.
‘Mr Kurera threatened Suzy with the hatchet, stating, “Nunga”, which is Sinhalese (for) “I swear to God”.’
The jury heard Kurera grabbed a 30cm black handled chef’s knife from the drawer, lent over Ms Perera and started hitting and stabbing her with both the axe and the knife.
‘Suzy grabbed a black handled knife… to try and stop her father, by stabbing him,’ Mr Gibson said.
‘Suzy was too scared to actually stab him, and instead dropped the knife near the kitchen area.
‘Nelomie looked at Suzy and said, “I’m dead”.’
Her safety watch captured Suzy’s voice and Kurera telling her: ‘Go. I’ve got nothing to lose. Get out of here’.
Dinush Kurera and Nelomi Perera in happier times
AFTERMATH
CCTV footage taken from the front porch of a neighbour’s home and played to the jury captured Suzy’s desperate calls for help.
‘Please, dad’s killing mum. He’s cutting her, like, with a knife. He’s, like, full-on bashing her with a knife. Billy’s gone. I don’t know where. She’s dead, I’m pretty sure she’s dead. He’s in there with a knife. I tried calling Triple 0,’ Suzy told her neighbours.
When police arrived, Kurera was in the toilet with his pants off.
The jury heard he approached them near the kitchen, where his wife’s bloody body lay.
‘All good. I’ll pack my bags,’ Kurera told the officers.
‘Look, I killed my wife. I killed wife. I tell you exactly what happened. Killed my wife. I have no pants. I killed my wife. She’s dead over there,’ he continued, gesturing towards the kitchen.
In what now forms Kurera’s defence, he told the officers he had acted in self defence.
‘She tried to stab me, but she couldn’t stab me. She couldn’t stab me. I just – I just want to talk to her – my kids. She started to stab me. I killed her. I killed her,’ he told police.
HOW IT BEGAN
The jury heard Ms Perera was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1979 and was aged just 43 when she was allegedly killed.
She grew up with three siblings and immigrated to Australia at age 10.
Kurera was also born in Sri Lanka and became involved with Ms Perera in 1999.
In 2004, the couple purchased a home in Lynbrook, 36 km southeast of Melbourne, before moving to Sandhurst in 2015.
Kurera purchased a children’s event business called Inflatable World in 2016, but by 2018 it had gone bust.
In late 2020, Ms Perera started a part-time retail position at a Myer store in Fountain Gate Shopping Centre in Narre Warren and at the time of her death had been looking forward to her first shift at a new job as a hairdresser.
Dinush Kurera, Nelomi Perera and their family
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CLAIMS
The jury heard Ms Perera had good reason to fear her ex-husband after telling him she wanted a divorce.
In 2013, while still living in Lynbrook, the jury heard Ms Perera claimed her then husband threatened to slash her tyres with a knife when she told him of her plans to leave with the children.
That same year she claimed Kurera struck her to the head with a hammer and stomped her head while she was on the ground during an argument.
Her sister told the jury that she observed at the time Ms Perera’s face was covered in bruises and she struggled to walk.
In another incident that year, police were called to the home following a Triple 0 call by Ms Perera, who claimed Kurera had assaulted her.
THE INTERVENTION ORDER
By 2021, the jury heard Ms Perera was convinced her husband had been cheating on her while on frequent trips to Sri Lanka.
Kurera had been travelling back to their homeland with plans to build a hotel there.
Her suspicions carried on throughout the following year, prompting her to install a tracking application on her husband’s phone.
In August that year a friend told Ms Perera she had located a photo of Kurera in bed with a woman in Sri Lanka.
The allegation prompted Ms Perera to engage a lawyer to commence divorce proceedings.
The jury heard Kurera took the news badly, prompting Ms Perera to approach police over concerns for her safety upon his eventual return.
An intervention order was approved in October, but could not be served upon Kurera until he set foot back in Australia.
The jury heard Ms Perera told police she was terrified Kurera might try and break into the house and put her in danger.
In September she told a domestic violence help organisation that Kurera had threatened over the phone to kill her.
She changed the locks on the family home and was provided with the watch that would later capture her alleged murder.
Dinush Kurera is accused of hacking Nelomi Perera to death with a hatchet
THE END
Mr Gibson ran the jury through the events leading up to Ms Perera’s death.
On September 27, Ms Perera sent a message to Kurera on her Viber app stating: ‘I want a divorce. I am not going to live my life afraid of you anymore.’
On December 1 at about 9.35am Australian Federal Police provided Kurera with a copy of the family violence intervention order as he got off the plane at Melbourne Airport.
‘That’s my f**king house. Where am I supposed to go now?’ Kurera allegedly told the officer.
He stayed the night at a friend’s house.
Unable to go home without a police officer present, Kurera was escorted there the following day to pick-up keys for a storage locker where all his possessions had been placed.
When Kurera entered the storage unit he saw that his clothes and items were strewn across the storage facility.
Kurera began to cry and stated words to the effect of ‘I built a five-bedroom house and look at this’, as he pointed to his belongings in the unit.
On December 3, the day Ms Perera would die, Kurera went about purchasing the items he would later use to allegedly murder her.
CCTV at a local Bunnings Warehouse captured him buying a wrecking bar and hatchet.
He spent the early evening at the cinema watching the Marvel movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
At 10pm he was caught on CCTV at a Carrum Downs petrol station buying a 10 litre plastic jerry can, filling it with fuel before buying a lighter and paying for it all using his own credit card.
Less than 15 minutes later he allegedly used the wrecking bar to gain entry into the backyard of his home where he lay in wait in the dark.
In opening the case, Mr Gibson told the jury Kurera’s alleged attack upon his wife was fuelled by a deep seated hatred he had for her.
‘For the way he perceived he’d been treated by her. Her treatment of him, as he perceived it, was something he could not and would not tolerate from his then estranged wife,’ he said.
‘This attack upon her was his response to those grievances he was then feeling.’
Mr Desmond maintained Ms Perera died after coming at his client with a knife.
‘He grappled with her over the knife, in her murderous rage and he defended himself and the deceased was killed,’ he said.
‘Rage met rage.’
The trial continues.
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