By Emily Woods
The bloodcurdling screams of a mother’s final moments alive while her estranged husband allegedly hacked her to death in front of their children have been played to a jury.
“Help me, help me,” Nelomie Perera yelled in a recording captured on her watch, which was played to the Victorian Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Mother-of-three Nelomie Perera.
Within 14 minutes of arriving at the family home, prosecutors allege, Dinush Kurera had broken through a wooden fence under the cover of darkness, slaughtered his 43-year-old wife and attacked his teenage son as he tried to run away.
Perera was found dead in the kitchen surrounded by a pool of blood.
Prosecutor Mark Gibson, KC, told 14 jurors on Tuesday that when police arrived, Kurera allegedly told them: “I killed my wife. She’s dead over there.”
On Wednesday, Kurera claimed he acted in self-defence after his wife came at him with a knife “in her murderous rage”.
Lawyers for Kurera, 47, who prosecutors allege had no injuries after the attack, told the jury that he admitted he killed his wife, but he did so to save his own life.
“He grappled with her over the knife, in her murderous rage, and he defended himself and the deceased was killed,” defence barrister John Desmond said. “Rage met rage.”
On Tuesday, the first day of the trial, the prosecution alleged that Kurera was fuelled by a “deep-seated hatred” for Perera after she told him she wanted a divorce and he discovered she was seeing other people.
Gibson alleged that Kurera was dressed in dark clothing, wearing gloves and wielding a hatchet he bought at Bunnings earlier that day, when he hit his estranged wife in the head as she was smoking on the Sandhurst property’s patio about 11.25pm on December 3, 2022.
Dinush Kurera with Nelomie Perera.
Perera was found in a pool of blood in her kitchen with 35 separate injuries, after Kurera allegedly killed her in front of their children.
Kurera has pleaded not guilty to her murder and denies assaulting his 17-year-old son.
The prosecution said Perera, 43, had discovered Kurera was cheating on her with another woman while he was on a trip to Sri Lanka and ended their marriage over the phone.
She told him he could no longer stay at their family home, organised a storage unit where she moved his belongings and was fearful about his return home to Melbourne, Gibson alleged.
About two days after he flew home, on December 3, 2022, Gibson said Kurera went to Bunnings and bought a 30 -centimetre crowbar and a fibreglass hatchet.
The prosecutor said that about 10pm, Kurera went to a petrol station and bought a lighter and a 10-litre jerry can, which he filled with petrol.
Kurera then drove to the family home in Sandhurst, in Melbourne’s southeast, and used the crowbar to break through the fence while wearing dark clothing and gloves, the court heard.
“Mr Kurera, under the cover of darkness, approached Nelomie, taking her by surprise as she was about to have a cigarette on the back patio area,” Gibson said.
He alleged Kurera then struck his wife in the head with a hatchet, which Kurera denies, and their two teen children ran down to their mother’s screams.
Police at the scene in December 2022. Credit: Nine News
The family then moved to the living room where the estranged couple argued before Gibson claimed Kurera again hit Perera with the hatchet, a claim which Kurera also denies.
Their 17-year-old son tried to run for help, but it’s alleged Kurera chased him and hit him with the axe.
Desmond said Kurera denies assaulting his son.
“It just didn’t happen,” the defence barrister said on Wednesday.
Gibson alleged Kurera, Perera and their 16-year-old daughter moved to the kitchen where he grabbed a 30-centimetre kitchen knife and stabbed her.
But Desmond said this was a “stark issue” for the jury to decide in the trial as Kurera claimed it was Perera who came at him with the knife.
“Nelomie took the opportunity when it arose to get the kitchen knife and came at the accused in a wild rage, violently swinging this large kitchen knife at the accused, trying to kill him,” he said.
“He did what any person would do and was entitled to do in those circumstances - he defended himself.”
The trial before Justice Amanda Fox continues.
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