by Tara Cosoleto, AAP
A man faces the prospect of life behind bars after being found guilty of murdering his wife with an axe in front of their teenage daughter in Sandhurst.
Dinush Kurera, 47, blinked and looked straight ahead as the jury’s foreman read out their guilty verdict on Friday.
The Victorian Supreme Court jurors spent less than three hours deliberating before reaching their decision.
Kurera admitted to killing his estranged wife Nelomie Perera, 43, on December 3, 2022, but denied committing murder as he claimed to have acted in self-defence.
During the trial, the couple’s two teenage children gave evidence to the jury about their mother’s final moments.
Their daughter, who was 16 at the time of the murder, said Kurera came to their house armed with an axe and threatened to burn the property down if they tried to contact police.
She said her mother was already bleeding from the head when she came downstairs and when her brother tried to flee, Kurera chased after him with the axe.
The teen told the jury she ran to the bathroom and tried to call triple-zero but the calls did not connect.
She then heard her mother’s screams so she ran back into the kitchen and saw Kurera holding an axe and hovering over Ms Perera, who was bleeding on the kitchen floor.
Ms Perera’s screams for help were captured on a safety watch and played to the jury in the early days of the trial.
Kurera then grabbed a knife and used it and the axe to strike and stab Ms Perera repeatedly in the neck and upper body, their daughter said.
Ms Perera yelled out “I’m dead” as she was attacked and the girl ran from the house to her neighbours next door.
CCTV footage played to the jury showed her banging on the front door, saying “dad’s killing mum” and “I’m pretty sure she’s dead”.
Kurera had a different version of events, when he took the stand to give evidence in the final days of the trial.
He told the jury Ms Perera had threatened him with a knife and bit his finger during a heated argument in their Melbourne home.
He claimed he was scared she was going to attack him when he grabbed an axe and hit her “only a couple of times”.
Ms Perera was found dead in a pool of blood with 35 separate wounds, prosecutors told the jury.
Kurera also denied assaulting his 17-year-old son by striking him with an axe as the teen tried to flee the house during the altercation.
The teenage boy described to the jury how Kurera attacked him before someone, believed to be Ms Perera, dragged his father off him.
The jury retired to consider their verdicts at 11.10am on Friday after hearing four weeks of evidence.
They returned with their two guilty verdicts, to the charges of murder and assault, at 2pm.
A large number of Ms Perera’s family and friends filled the court’s upstairs public gallery for the verdict.
Kurera was returned to custody and will front the Supreme Court in November for a pre-sentence hearing.
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