Melbourne dad who murdered his wife in front of kids with an axe is jailed – after daughter’s devastating choice was revealed in court

A murderer has been jailed for 37 years for killing his wife with an ax in front of their teenage children in what a judge has described as a brutal and gruesome attack.

Dinush Kurera, 47, blinked and looked straight ahead as Victorian Supreme Court Justice Amanda Fox handed down his sentence on Thursday morning.

After thirty years he will be eligible for parole.

Kurera claimed he acted in self-defense when he repeatedly stabbed his wife Nelomie Perera with an ax and knife at her Melbourne home on December 3, 2022.

But a jury rejected his story and found him guilty of murder in August after just three hours of deliberation.

Judge Fox described the fatal attack as brutal and gruesome and said Kurera had clearly been furious.

“You were motivated by anger and saw everything through the prism of entitlement and ownership,” she said in her sentence.

“In your eyes, Nelomie deserved to die because she abandoned you, excluded you from your home, and saw other men.”

Kurera’s teenage children witnessed the attack and his 16-year-old daughter even tried to stop him when he grabbed a knife.

The court heard she had to consider stabbing her father to save her mother’s life.

The audio was recorded during a special ‘safety watch’ given to women who fear they are at risk of being hit by violent men.

“Suzy (not her real name) picked up a knife with a black handle… to try to stop her father by stabbing him,” Attorney General Mark Gibson KC said.

‘Suzy was too scared to actually stab him and instead dropped the knife near the kitchen.

‘Nelomie looked at Suzy and said, ‘I’m dead.’

Her security guard caught Suzy’s voice and Kurera told her, “Go. I have nothing to lose. Go away’.

Both children gave evidence during the trial and described in victim impact statements how painful the judicial process was.

This is a groundbreaking story… More to come