Dinush Kurera jailed for 37 years after brutally murdering his wife Nelomie Perera

A remorseless killer who brutally murdered his wife with an axe in front of his own children at their Sandhurst home will spend at least 30 years behind bars.

Dinush Kurera will spend at least 30 years behind bars after he was found guilty of murdering his wife Nelomie Perera. Picture: Aaron Francis

A man who brutally killed his wife with an axe in front of their own children after breaking into their Melbourne home has been jailed for 37 years.

Dinush Kurera, 47, will serve at least 30 years behind bars before he is eligible for parole after he was found guilty of the murder of his estranged wife Nelomie Perera, 43, in their Sandhurst home in December 2022.

Supreme Court judge Amanda Fox on Thursday said it was difficult to comprehend how the remorseless killer could ignore his teenage daughter’s pleas as he attacked her mother with a hatchet and kitchen knife.

“You displayed callous and cruel disregard to your own children and still maintain they are not telling the truth when they most certainly are,” she said.

“This was serious, brutal and terrible offending.”

Dinush Kurera ignored his daughter’s pleas as he attacked her mother.

Kurera stared straight ahead, keeping his arms crossed and leaning his back against the dock as the judge denounced his crimes.

Family and friends of Ms Perera, including the couple’s children, comforted each other after the sentence.

It took a jury less than three hours of deliberations to convict Kurera of murder after rejecting his claims he acted in self-defence.

Justice Fox said he had shown no remorse for his actions and his wife was “unarmed and utterly defenceless”.

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

In the lead-up to her murder, Ms Perera told her husband over the phone she wanted to end their marriage and sell their home after she learnt he was having an affair with a woman in Sri Lanka where he had been residing for several months.

Fearing what he would do when he returned, Ms Perera took measures to protect herself, including seeking help from police, changing the locks on her home and wearing a safety wristwatch.

Two days after he flew back to Melbourne, Kurera broke into the property via a back fence and ambushed Ms Perera as she stepped outside for a cigarette on the evening of December 3, 2022.

A judge found Kurera showed no remorse for his actions and was motivated by anger.

He was wearing dark-coloured clothing and gloves and carrying a jerry can filled with petrol and a hatchet he had purchased just hours earlier.

The couple’s two teenage children rushed downstairs after hearing their mother’s screams, finding her bleeding on the ground and their father raising the hatchet.

He told them if they called police, he would set fire to the home and kill all of them, including himself.

Ms Perera desperately pleaded with her husband to call an ambulance, but he refused, instead ushering the family into the living room.

Kurera told them he would be staying at the home, and berated his wife saying she had ruined his life.

He asked his children if she had been seeing other men, and when their teenage son confirmed she had, flew into a fit of rage.

Kurera attacked his wife with the hatchet, striking her multiple times in the chest, before turning on the couple’s son as he tried to escape via a back door.

Harrowing audio from Ms Perera’s safety wrist watch capturing the moment she was murdered was played to the jury.

“Help me, help me,” she could be heard screaming.

The court heard Ms Perera died on the kitchen floor after suffering 35 individual blows from the axe and a knife retrieved from the kitchen.

Kurera was also found guilty of assault after he struck his son in the head and knee when he tried to flee.

With time served, he will be eligible for parole in 2052.