Man ‘mercilessly stabbed ex to demise in store’ as daughter cried ‘I would like my mum’

Nimalarajah Mathiyadaranam is accused of stabbing his estranged wife 18 times in the shop where she worked, allegedly ‘fuelled by anger’ over not being invited to a family party

View 3 Images

A man on trial for allegedly murdering his estranged wife broke down in tears in the dock as he heard his daughter’s heart-wrenching words. The youngster cried: “I don’t want anything to do with him anymore. He stabbed my mum.”

Nimalarajah Mathiyadaranam is currently facing a jury at Liverpool Crown Court, accused of the brutal murder of Nilani Nimalarajah. The 47-year-old is said to have stabbed his ex-partner 18 times in her place of work, Low Cost Food and Wine on Stanley Road in Bootle, reportedly fuelled by “anger” over not being invited to a family gathering.

Earlier, it was suggested that Mathiyadaranam, from Warrington Road in Widnes, had disguised himself while buying the knife used in the attack from an Asda supermarket. He then supposedly hid the weapon in a JD Sports bag and took a bus to the crime scene.

After the alleged murder, he is said to have consumed whisky and “poisoned” himself with a pesticide. He had previously been barred from contacting the 44-year-old mother of his three children due to past instances of “violence and harassment”.

On Wednesday, a jury was shown video footage from a police officer’s body camera. The clip captured the couple’s 17-year-old daughter recounting the incident to the officer, reports the Liverpool Echo.

She had been in the flat above the shop, where she lived with her mum and two younger sisters, when the incident occurred. She discovered her gravely injured mother lying in a pool of blood at the store’s entrance after descending the stairs.

The footage, captured just 10 minutes following the attack, revealed the teenager in an “extremely distressed” state, wailing and shrieking as she addressed the officer within the flat.

Making reference to a restraining order that prohibited Mathiyadaranam from approaching both herself and her mother, she could be heard saying: “He’s my dad. He’s an alcoholic. He went to court. He’s a perfectly nice man, I promise. He’s not anymore. He’s an alcoholic.

“I don’t want anything to do with him anymore. I tried to keep everything strong, because I’m the first daughter. He stabbed my mum. I was in the shop. I saw it with my own two eyes. He shouldn’t even be coming here. He been threatening us. I can’t live without my mum, I promise you. I need my mum.”

The youngster was also captured conversing in Tamil whilst in a deeply upset condition over the phone before continuing: “I need my mum. I need my mum. Don’t let him off because he’s been drinking, because I know what he is. I loved him, I did. My whole life, I’ve had no one for me except for my mum. I need my mum. I need my mum with me. I need my mum with me.”

Mathiyadaranam broke down in tears as the recording was shown to the court, hunched forward and clutching the glass panels at the front of the dock before dabbing his eyes with a tissue.

Several jurors were also visibly moved to tears whilst viewing the footage.

Annabel Darlow KC had previously informed the jury during the prosecution’s opening statement: “On Friday the 20th of June of last year, this defendant, armed with a large knife, went to a convenience store in Bootle here in Liverpool, where his estranged wife, Nilani Nimalarajah, was working. He entered the store and stabbed his wife to death.

“It was a merciless, sustained and extremely brutal attack. He stabbed Nilani at least 18 times, deliberately targeting the areas of her chest and her head. Indeed, he stabbed her with such ferocity that it caused the tip of the knife to be broken off.

“The prosecution’s case is that the defendant deliberately planned this murder. Hours before he killed Nilani, he went to a shop where he purchased a whole block of knives and some duct tape.

“He had become estranged from his family and, indeed, at the time of the killing was subject to court restraining orders, which prohibited, or should have prohibited, him from approaching his elder daughter and Nilani at all. Those orders were imposed following earlier incidents of violence and harassment, committed by this defendant.

“The catalyst for Nilani’s murder appears to have been this defendant’s rage and his misguided sense of honour that he had not been included or invited to a significant family occasion.”

He added: “The killing of Nilani was captured on the CCTV fitted at the shop where Nilani was working.”

Regarding Mathiyadaranam’s defence case, Ms Darlow added: “It is understood that the defendant accepts killing Nilani but asserts that, because he was drunk at the time, he did not have intention to kill her or cause her really serious harm…The case for the prosecution is that the defendant intended to kill Nilani. This was a pre-meditated, deliberate attack, in which the defendant knew exactly what he was doing. He had selected and bought the knife in advance.

“He had travelled deliberately to Nilani’s workplace, deliberately sought to disguise himself to stop her hitting the panic alarm, deliberately, the prosecution suggest, waited until she was alone and helpless in the shop, then stabbed and stabbed and stabbed her until she was at death’s door.

“The killing itself, as you have seen on the CCTV, was slow, deliberate and involved not only stabbing Nilani multiple times but deliberately aiming where the defendant knew would be the most vulnerable parts of the human body, in particular the left side of the chest and the head.

“The prosecution suggest that the CCTV shows he carried on stabbing Nilani until there could be no doubt that she was dead. That killing, we suggest, was a culmination of earlier violence and harassment of Nilani and her family, and a calculated response to a blow to his own ego when he was excluded, quite rightly, from the celebrations of his second daughter’s coming of age.”

Mathiyadaranam denies murder and possession of a bladed article in a public place, having admitted two counts of breaching a restraining order.

The trial, before Judge Brian Cummings KC, continues.