A MAN who told a friend, gardai, and a 999 call operator he killed his wife has claimed he accidentally cut her throat while struggling over a knife which he bought two days prior to her death, a court heard.
Murder accused Regin Parithapara Rajan also told the Central Criminal Court in Cork that he tried to stop the bleeding with his hand.
However, evidence during the trial showed he did not immediately call the emergency service for help as she lay dying on her bed.
The 43-year-old has denied murdering his wife, Deepa Paruthiyezhuth Dinamani, 38, at their rented home in Cardinal Court, Wilton, in Cork city, on July 14, 2023.
The mum-of-one died from massive blood loss after she sustained a 14cm cut to her throat.
Mr Rajan told the court today that he loved his wife and wished he could turn back time.
He said that he and Deepa had an argument about pension money earlier in the day and that his wife had gone to a bedroom.
Mr Rajan claimed that he wanted to obtain his passport from her but she refused to give it to him until she returned from a trip to Dublin.
He said: “I was a hostage. I left the room and went to my son’s bedroom. I was crying. I was depressed. I didn’t know what to do in my own home. I drank a few drinks.”
He then went into his wife’s bedroom to try to retrieve his passport.
He said Deepa was holding her phone while only wearing a t-shirt.
He said: “I was stunned. She was semi-nude. I thought, ‘What is she doing?’ As soon as she saw me her face went (he made an expression) and she asked me, ‘What do you want?’ I didn’t say anything.”
‘BLOOD EVERYWHERE’
Rajan said Deepa picked up a carving knife he had purchased a few days earlier for cutting fish and asked him to “go back”.
He told the jury and Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford that he tried to get the knife from her but that they had a “struggle” and ended up on the bed.
He had retrieved the knife from Deepa at this point and she got cut by it in a tussle.
He said: “There was blood everywhere. It was a shock to me. I didn’t know what to do. I just tried to stop the blood from the neck. My mind was blank. I can’t think straight.”
‘I WISH SHE WAS ALIVE’
Defence senior counsel Brian McInerney asked Mr Rajan if he had accepted that he had told a 999 operator, gardai, and a friend that he had stabbed his wife.
The accused said that he accepted that this was the case, but insisted that he simply went in to the room to get his passport and never intended to harm his wife.
He said: “What happened that day, I wish I could turn back the clock. I wish she was alive.”
Prosecution counsel Sean Gillane, SC, asked him if he had done anything to help his wife in the aftermath of what had occurred.
‘I WAS IN SHOCK’
He said: “Your wife began to die from the amount of blood she was losing. From the amount of blood she was swallowing. What did you do to help?”
Mr Rajan replied he tried to make the blood stop with his hand, adding: “My mind was blank. I was in shock.”
Mr Gillane said that when Deepa was still alive and struggling to breathe with the blood going into her lungs, that Mr Rajan was “feeling sorry for himself and shocked”.
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