A teenager has recalled the moment she was forced to confront her father, a suspected axe murderer.
Suzy, now 18 (not her real name), bravely appeared before the Victorian Supreme Court on Monday to testify against her father, Dinush Kurera.47-year-old, who pleaded not guilty to the murder of his ex-wife Nelomi Perera, 43.
The alleged disturbance occurred at the family home in Sandhurst, 37 kilometres southeast of Melbourne, just a few weeks away from Christmas 2022.
Suzy, who was just 16 at the time, told jurors she tried to stop her father from using the axe on her terrified mother, who was curled up in a chair trying to hide her face from the blows.
“I also stood between them and grabbed his arm and pushed him a little bit, or tried to push him away,” he said via video link from a remote location.
Both Suzy and her brother, now 19, have been forced to testify against their father, who police say murdered their mother in a fit of rage when she filed for divorce.
Suzy claimed she tried to shield her mother from her father’s axe blows up to four times before he managed to land a hit.
Dinush Kurera, 47, is accused of murdering his ex-wife Nelomi Perera, 43.
“Every time, except the last time… the last time he got up, he started wanting to go hit her,” he said.
“He was furious. She was curled up in the chair and her arms were covering her face… he hit her and I obviously moved because I didn’t want him to hit me and he hit her in the face and neck area.”
Suzy said she could not remember how many times her father hit her mother, who tried desperately to protect her children in their final moments of life.
Kurera also pleaded not guilty to Another charge of assault against his 17-year-old son during the same alleged attack.
The court heard that Suzy’s brother Billy (whose name is also not real) tried to flee when he saw the alleged axe attack on his mother.
“When Dad started hitting Mom (Billy) ran out the back door,” Suzy said.
‘(Dad) chased Billy… Mom chased them both, too.’
On Monday morning, Billy was questioned by Kurera’s lawyer, John Desmond, who questioned the teenager about his version of events.
Mr Desmond repeatedly suggested that Billy was deliberately avoiding answering his questions and risking committing perjury.
The Sandhurst estate where the bloody murder allegedly took place
The court heard Ms Perera had been terrified of her ex-husband in the days before he allegedly murdered her.
Suzy told the jury she heard her father threaten to kill her mother during a phone call before the deadly confrontation.
“He said, ‘I’m going to fucking kill you,'” Suzy told the jury.
The court heard that Kurera had arrived at the family home dressed in black and armed with an axe after being served with an intervention order a few days earlier.
His wife had caught her husband cheating on her with a woman while he was supposedly on a business trip to his homeland in Sri Lanka.
Suzy claimed that her father had threatened to kill them all, burn down the house and commit suicide if they tried to call the police.
However, in the midst of the alleged attack, he asked his children if they would consider leaving their mother and living with him.
“I said, ‘Why would I want to do that if you’re threatening Mom with an axe?'” Suzy told the jury.
The court heard that Kurera blamed his wife for ruining his life and questioned his children about their love life.
“Was she acting like a whore?” Suzy claimed her father asked her.
“I told him I didn’t know anything, but (Billy) told him he was talking to someone.”
Dinush Kurera addresses the Supreme Court of Victoria on Wednesday
Dinush Kurera, Nelomi Perera and their family
Kurera was allegedly attacked by surprise in the middle of the night after returning home from Sri Lanka.
Crown prosecutor Mark Gibson KC told the jury Ms. Perera had started a new relationship with a man just a few months earlier.
“Billy, who thought that instead of trying to make the situation worse by naming the man, told his father that Nelomie was seeing some people,” Gibson said.
“This unfortunate comment by Billy, the Crown says, made Mr Kurera even more furious with Nelomie.”
Graphic videos and photographs of the bloody aftermath of what allegedly happened next were shown to the jury last week.
The jury heard that Kurera approached his ex-wife and struck her body with the axe several times.
When his son tried to flee, he was allegedly chased by his father and hit in the back with the same axe.
The jury heard Ms Perera struggled desperately to save her son, shouting at Kurera to “get off of him”.
Her efforts allowed Billy to escape, leaving his sister to supposedly witness what happened next.
Mr Desmond said Ms Perera died after attacking his client with a knife.
“He grabbed her by the knife, in his murderous rage, and he defended himself and the deceased was killed,” he said.
“Rage met rage.”
The trial continues.
