Wilton murder-accused told gardaí his wife was 'having an affair' and he 'could not tolerate that'
Regin Parithapara Rajan is on trial on the single charge of murdering 38-year-old Deepa Paruthiyezhuth Dinamani at their home at Cardinal Court, Wilton, Cork, on July 14, 2023 File picture: Dan Linehan
The man on trial for the murder of his wife said at the scene that night: “I just stabbed her with a knife in the throat, she was cheating on me, I could not tolerate that. I could not take this. She was the love of my life.”
This evidence was given on Thursday afternoon at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork, where 43-year-old Regin Parithapara Rajan, is on trial on the single charge of murdering 38-year-old Deepa Paruthiyezhuth Dinamani at their home at Cardinal Court, Wilton, Cork, on July 14, 2023, contrary to common law.
Detective Garda Kenneth Lawton arrived at the house where other gardaí were present on the night and the accused was directed to leave the house at Cardinal Court with his hands up. He did so and then had his hands handcuffed behind his back and was told to kneel on the ground.
Det Garda Lawton told Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford and the jury of seven women and five men he gave the accused a legal caution and asked him what happened at his home that night. Det Garda Lawton noted the accused man’s reply:
“She was cheating on me. She was having an affair and he lives in London. I just found out today. I saw the messages that were on her phone [details of passwords] and I could not tolerate it. It was very ugly messages.
“I just stabbed her with a knife in the throat, she was cheating on me, I could not tolerate that. I will take any sentence. I committed a crime. I could not take this. She was the love of my life.
“And this is the second time, sorry to say. I was in depression and family life was not good. I lost 15kgs in the last two months.
“It was good until two months ago. When I knew she was chatting with someone, that is when I became depression.
“I did not do it deliberately. After seeing those messages, I did that, sorry to say.”
Rejani Jose, a nurse at Cork University Hospital, who is also from Kerala in India, the home place of the defendant and the deceased, was renting a room at their house in Wilton.
On the evening July 14, 2023, she got a call from the couple minding the couple’s child and they wanted to know if the defendant and deceased were home for the boy to be dropped home.
Ms Jose, who was in her own room at the time, testified: “The whole house was silent. I noticed all the doors were closed. I just thought, let me check the room near the toilet [to see if anyone was there]. I just checked [motioned the pressing down of a door handle]. I thought it was locked. But I pushed and it opened.”
She said she saw Regin just inside the door.
“I got frightened. I didn’t think anyone was there. I told him [couple] coming with the child. I was afraid of his appearance. His eyes were red and I feel something unusual. His facial expression was upset. I was in a panic mode, I was in a panic situation. Something unusual I felt.”
Cross-examined by defence senior counsel Brian McInerney she agreed Deepa was the boss in that family.
Ms Jose said: “She is good at everything, excellent English, good at organising and a good cook, excellent in everything in my view. But I am just a bystander. I don’t have an interpersonal relationship with her.”
She agreed by contrast, Regin was softly spoke and quiet. Mr McInerney reminded the witness of what she said in her statement to gardaí that: “Regin would be trying to please her. I used to think that he was trying to get her attention or love but she would be quite indifferent to him, they would never go out much as a family and nor were the active in the Indian community.”
She agreed she found on the night of July 14, 2023, Regin looked like a different person altogether.
State pathologist Linda Mulligan examined the body of the deceased on July 15, 2023, and first noticed bloodstaining of the face. She said there were no signs of petechial haemorrhages, which would have been present if there had been asphyxia.
“They were not present in this case,” she said.
The pathologist also noticed the hands were bloodstained. “She was dressed in a green tee-shirt which was heavily bloodstained and there were three tears in the tee-shirt on the left shoulder. She wore a crop-top which was heavily bloodstained,” Dr Mulligan said.
The main injury was a 14cm horizontal cut across the neck of the deceased, gaping to 4cm. There was also a severing of the thyroid artery. Dr Mulligan found the deceased had been breathing in blood. The pathologist could see blood in the lungs, and blood had also been swallowed.
She commented the neck wound also damaged the voice box, which would have made her unable to vocalise after the wound was inflicted.
The pathologist concluded death was due to blood loss, complicated by inhalation of blood due to an incised wound to the neck.
The trial continues.
