Man who killed his pregnant ex-wife with a crossbow had collected cache of weapons over a year
An obsessed ex-husband who was hell-bent on getting revenge, spent around a year collecting and amassing a cache of weapons before he decided to murder his pregnant ex-wife with a crossbow. The Old Bailey heard that Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo, 51, attacked Devi Unmathallegadoo, a mother of five, at her home in Ilford which is located in East London with a crossbow.
Jurors heard that Unmathallegadoo had been waiting for 35-year-old Devi in the shed of her house, where she stayed with her new partner Imtiaz Muhammad, before he burst out holding two crossbows. Jurors heard how he then chased her into her house and murdered her. At the time of her death, Devi was eight months pregnant and the bolt very narrowly missed the unborn baby who survived after being born via C-section.
According to reports, Devi's parents had arranged her marriage to Ramanodge when she was just 16 years and the couple's relationship "was not a happy one".
They ended up getting separated in 2012 after which Devi started to have a relationship with Muhammad who had helped decorate the couple's kitchen. During the time of her death, Devi was staying with Muhammad and the two were "eagerly expecting the imminent arrival" of their baby.
As reported by DailyMail, the jurors were made aware of how Ramanodge "had not reacted well to the break up" and spent a year "storing items in close proximity to Devi's house" for use in "a cold-blooded execution by a man consumed by hatred and an unquenchable thirst for revenge."
By November last year, Ramanodge "was armed with two new crossbows, bolts, a hammer, a knife in a homemade sheath, cable ties and duct tape." He had planned to restrain the couple and to "kill at least Devi, Imtiaz, and their unborn child."
When the attack took place, Muhammed yelled at Devi to "run" but the attacker managed to kill her.
The jurors were made aware of how the marriage between Devi and Ramanodge had ended post an incident in 2012 when Devi jumped out of a first-floor bedroom window and had to be taken to hospital with a broken heel while he was arrested.
Peter Wright QC, prosecuting shared with the jurors that the break up of the marriage had "a profound effect on Unmathallegadoo', eventually leading to "a deeply held desire for a most violent revenge."
"The attack that took place on the morning of 12 November last year was the culmination of a series of acts carried out by him, all of which were calculated to ensure a successful outcome to what was to be a devastating and murderous act of revenge on his former wife and her new partner. This was a quite deliberate and calculated act of revenge on his part intended to cause at the very least the death of Devi and the extinction of the child she carried," Wright revealed.
"For at least a year he had been making preparations for an attack upon Devi and Imtiaz. In March of 2018 at the latest, he had acquired two crossbows and numerous bolts with which to carry out his attack. It is, we say, no coincidence that he had acquired more than one crossbow for his scheme," he added.
Ramanodge has flatly denied the murder and the attempted destruction of a child capable of being born alive.
The trial continues.