Dinush Kurera: Wife killer jailed for 37 years over ‘brutal and terrible’ axe murder of Nelomie Perera

A remorseless killer who murdered his wife with an axe in front of their teenage children has been jailed for 37 years.

Dinush Kurera, 47, sat stony-faced and leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed in the Victorian Supreme Court on Wednesday as details of the shocking attack were aired.

Sobs could be heard from the public gallery as Justice Amanda Fox said Kurera would serve at least three decades behind bars before becoming eligible for parole.

After a trial spanning five weeks earlier this year, it took a Victorian jury just three hours to find him guilty of murdering Nelomie Perera, 43, two years ago.

Kurera had pleaded not guilty, claiming her death was self-defence after his wife attacked him with a knife – a claim the judge slammed as a hopeless defence and a ridiculous explanation.

The court was told in the weeks leading up to her death Ms Perera had been terrified of her estranged husband after telling him over the phone that she wanted a divorce.

Kurera had spent the past few months in Sri Lanka where he had dreams to open a hotel and his wife learnt he was having an affair.

“I’m not going to live my life afraid of you anymore,” she said.

Justice Fox told the court that a week before Ms Perera’s murder she told police that “she believed you would kill her when you got back home”.

“She was right to be terrified,” the judge said.

Ms Perera had changed the locks and received an emergency watch that recorded parts of the brutal attack, which was played to the jury.

Just two days after Kurera returned to Melbourne from Sri Lanka on December 1, 2022, he lay in wait behind their Sandhurst home in Melbourne’s southeast for about an hour.

He was dressed in dark-coloured clothing and carrying a petrol-filled jerry can and a hatchet purchased just hours earlier.

The court was told Kurera set on Ms Perera after she went out for a cigarette after 11pm on December 3, with her screams causing their two children to run to her aid.

They found their mother on the floor of the kitchen with a head injury and Kurera standing over her.

Despite both being teenagers, Justice Fox said the pair displayed remarkable bravery in placing themselves between Kurera and their mother and urging medical treatment.

Kurera told them if they called the police or tried to leave he would set fire to the home and kill everyone inside.

Justice Fox said Kurera flew into a murderous rage after asking Ms Perera if she had been seeing anyone and she responded it was him who had been unfaithful.

He paused the attack only to strike his son twice, to the head and shoulder with the axe, as he fled the home.

The court was told Ms Perera’s daughter was present and begged her father to stop as he murdered his wife.

“Nelomie was very alive through much of your attack and knew she was going to die,” Justice Fox said.

“Her last words to her beloved daughter were ‘I’m dead’.”

Ms Perera was found with 35 separate injuries, while Kurera was arrested at the scene uninjured after soiling himself.

Handing down her sentence, Justice Fox said she had received 27 statements from Ms Perera’s family, children and friends, while no one had written a letter on Kurera’s behalf.

“Nelomie’s family and friends are utterly devastated by her death and their grief is ongoing … many feel like they failed her,” she said.

“The realty is they did everything they could. No one but you is to blame for her death.”

The court was told Kurera was entirely without remorse and continued to blame Ms Perera, while their children were accused of lying about what happened at trial.

“This was serious, brutal and terrible offending,” the judge said.

“Nelomie had every right to leave you, see whoever she liked and remain in the Sandhurst home … She was an innocent woman who was just trying to escape from her life with you.

“This was a shocking breach of trust as both a husband and father. It’s hard to comprehend how you were not moved to stop by your children.”

Kurera was jailed for 36 years over the murder of his wife with a year added to the sentence for his attack on his son. He will be eligible for parole in December 2052 aged 75.

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