Lankan jailed for life over murder in UK

A callous killer has been jailed for life after police filmed him confessing at the scene and saying: ”I hope she’s dead. I’m happy she die.”

Gobinath Vellasamy still had blood on his hands when his dramatic arrest was captured on a police bodycam as he calmly told officers “Some people are not eligible to be on this earth.”

The Sri Lankan asylum seeker was caught within minutes of his brutal knife attack on victim Mayurathy Perinpamoorthy because one neighbour saw it through a ground floor window.

Horrified neighbour Bernadine Reid saw Mayurathy run to the window with her arms outstretched, shouting for help, before Vellasamy dragged her back and killed her.

She was stabbed so many times in the neck she died before police arrived and a pathologist was unable to count the number of wounds.

Vellasamy resented Mayurathy because she had started a relationship with fellow Sri Lankan Punnahairaja Serveraj, known as Raj, who was a distant relation and who had been his closest friend after they both fled to Britain to escape the civil war in their own country.

He referred to her as a cheating bitch in a phone call to another friend just moments before the killing but later claimed she had been pestering him for sex.

Former shop worker Vellasamy killed 32-year-old mother-of-one Mayurathy after going to the flat she shared with Raj in Tudor Court, Yeovil, while she was alone on the night of August 6 last year.

An upstairs neighbour heard an argument and her screams for help and Miss Reid saw the killing as she passed the window on her way back from a swimming session.

Police were on the scene within a couple of minutes, some officers running from the nearby Yeovil police station and the next constable to arrive wore a bodycam which captured Vellasamy’s arrest.

The jury took just over an hour to reach their guilty verdict. Earlier in the trial they had a unique chance to be taken inside the crime scene when they were shown footage from the camera worn by Pc Mark Doble.

It showed Vellasamy still inside the flat but handcuffed through an open window to Sergeant James Page. The body of the victim was visible in the background, lying in a pool of blood.

Vellasamy still had blood on his hands but was calm and passive. He was eventually manhandled out of the open louvre window by three officers while still handcuffed to the Sergeant.

He told the officers:”She is a cheating bitch and does not belong on this earth. You are wasting your time, she is dead. She is not worthy to be on this earth. I hope she is dead.”

The bodycam footage recorded him saying: ”I hope she’s dead. I’m happy she die.”

Later, on the way to the police station, he was seen saying: ”How many years will I get? Ten, 20, 30, 40?” Some people are not eligible to stay in this world. She’s not fit for this world.”

Vellasamy, aged 36, of Everton Road, Yeovil, denied murder but was found guilty and was jailed for life with a minimum term of 18 years.

Judge Mr Justice Lindblom told him:”You used the knife with frightful force in a sustained attack on a defenceless young woman.

“She ran to the window screaming for help but this seems to have had no effect on you, neither did the desperate effort of a neighbour who saw what you were doing and banged on the window trying to get you to stop.

“That witness described the mechanical way in which you killed her and the prosecution likened it to an execution.

“You showed not even the faintest remorse and even now I cannot discern any real sense in you of the dreadful crime you have committed.

“It is impossible to say precisely what was your motive, but no motive could justify any violence, let alone the brutality with which you ended her life.

“A very serious aggravating feature is the quite extraordinary degree of sustained violence with a knife you used to murder the victim in her own home. It was a truly horrific attack.

“She had no chance of escape or of parrying your relentless assault.”

The judge praised the ‘quiet fortitude’ of Mayurathy’s parents, who had sat through the trial with Raj.

He quoted from their victim impact statement in which they revealed that Mayurathy’s seven-year-old daughter Thanika has been left orphaned because her father died in the Sri Lankan civil war.

The father’s statement said:”We struggle to express in words our feeling of devastation at Mayurathy’s death. I will never see my daughter again, never be able to chat to her or laugh with her or comfort her.

“Her child will grow up without a mother. The impact on her is huge. She does not have a mother or a father.

“It is very difficult to explain to a seven-year-old that her mother has been taken away from her and why she will never be able to see or talk to her again.”

Vellasamy came to Britain as an asylum seeker after being accused of supplying mobile phones to the Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka and worked in petrol stations around the country.

He developed a drinking and gambling problem while living in Glasgow and then moved to Somerset where he lived in Ilchester before moving to Yeovil.

He shared a flat with Raj and Mayurathy in Ilchester but they argued because of his drinking and volatile behaviour and he held a grudge against both.

He believed Raj owed him money and blamed Mayurathy for coming between him and his friend.

In the eight months he lived in Yeovil he was in constant trouble with the police because of his heavy drinking. Every beat officer had dealings with him and had previously been arrested trying to get into Raj and Mayurathy’s home.

In all the police were called to 34 different incidents including two half-hearted suicide attempts, one when he took an overdose and another when he put his head on the railway line at Yeovil Junction.

He denied murder and claimed he had no intention to kill but had lost control when Mayurathy referred to his grandmother as ‘an old piece’, which is apparently a serious insult in Sri Lankan.

His defence team argued he was suffering from depression and paranoia brought on by alcohol dependency, but a prosecution expert said he knew what he was doing when he carried out the killing.

After the case Mayurathy’s family and her boyfriend Raj thanked the police for their efforts.

Raj said:”We are relieved at the verdict and would like to thank everyone who has got justice for Mayurathy, especially the Avon and Somerset police.”(Western Morning News)

Source: Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)