Rape and murder - most brutal

Reminiscences of a retired senior cop

By Ananda Jayasena S.S.P. (Rtd.)

After my temporary attachment to the C.I.D, to do the spade work - to prosecute the 1962 Coup-d'tat suspects, the work had been getting less day by day. A.S.P. (C.I.D.) had directed O.I.C. unit (I) Inspector A. M. Senaviratne to give me the Panadura, "Accused unknown-rape and murder case" to enquire into.

This incident had taken place in March 1962, and the request for assistance of the C. I. D. had been sought for by Supdt. of Police, Western Province (South) J.M. Rosmale-Cocque.

The gist of the case was as follows: "A 24-year-old, pretty woman was raped and killed by strangulation on 20th of March 1962. The murder had taken place in broad daylight, when she was alone in the house.

A sergeant, two constables and a vehicle were allocated to me for this enquiry.

Tiddy Wickremaratne who comes from a very respectable Buddhist family, was a Charted Accountant in a leading firm in Colombo and lived in a palatial house at Panadura. He had a childhood love affair with a very pretty girl, who later became a school teacher, named Daisy de Zoysa from Ragama. She was an devout Roman Catholic.

The Catholic Church eventually granted permission for a mixed marriage, and after the marriage they came to reside in Panadura. Besides these two, a cookwoman by the name of Jane, and an elderly man servant called Cornelius lived in the house.

Permission

One request of Daisy from Tiddy, was permission to hang a picture of Jesus in the main hall, and to light an altar lamp. Because of the love he had for Daisy, and being an educated man, he allowed this request. From this time onwards this altar lamp was burning day and night, and no sooner did it gets extinguished, Daisy immediately lit it. Time went by, Daisy gave up her teaching career to look after the family and the house. They had just finished celebrating their second wedding anniversary and she was in the early stage of pregnancy. On the 20th of March 1962, as usual, Tiddy Wickremaratne drove his BMW car to Colombo to work.

Meanwhile on the 18th, Jane had got a telephone message from Kaduwela Post Office, from her son Norbert, informing her that his father was sick, and requested her to come home forthwith. Daisy wanted to give her some money but since she did not have sufficient money ready on hand, she requested her to wait and leave on the following day.

Jane left on the 20th around 7.00 a.m. At about 9.30 a.m. Daisy sent Cornelius to Pinwatte, which is about three miles away, on an errand. When he returned at about 11.30 a.m. he found the lady of the house murdered and lying on the floor of the main hall. She was lying on her back, eyes wide open, hair dishevelled the housecoat she was wearing torn and disarranged. He raised cries, and the neighbours rushed in. Tiddy too being informed, came home. He found the Rs. 50 he had left inside the telephone directory missing and also the altar lamp not burning.

D.M.O. Panadura, Dr. Noel Bartholomeusz, who later became an eminent surgeon, held the post mortem examination.

He was of the opinion that death had occurred between 9.30 a.m. and 11.30 a.m. on March 20th, 1962. The deceased had been raped before death.

He had noticed bruise marks on the left eye and forehead. Deep nail marks had been present on the inner sides of both thighs running vertically. The pressure caused by squeezing the neck had caused severe damage to the tissues of the upper part of the throat, vocal cords and the pharynx, and the cause of death was given as death due to strangulation.

We made confidential enquiries from the milkman, newspaperman, postman, scavenging labourers who come to clear the surrounding drains and the neighbours, which drew a blank.

Four days had elapsed and we were still at square one. There was a young buxom, frisky lass of about 20 years who appeared to be a "Nanny" working in the adjoining house. I told P. C. Linton, to chat her up and to get into friendly terms with this woman.

Linton was successful, she had told him that Jane had a well-built son who gave her the glad eye, and Jane having come to know about this, had reprimanded him, and that he did not come near her now, whereas earlier he used to come once a month.

That same evening I had a chat with Jane, whom I now knew was from Kaduwela. She told me that her only son, Norbert works as a labourer for Peries mudalali, who was the biggest sand contractor in Kaduwela.

Labourer

On the following morning P.C. Linton and I went to Kaduwela around 6.00 a.m. where we met a constable from Nawagamuwa, and casually asked him whether he knew where Peries mudalaly's sand quarry is, when he told us that he too was going there to serve a summons to him around 6.30 am. P. C. Linton and I stayed on the riverbank and while the P. C. was talking to a person dressed in a national suit, I noticed that one of the persons who was collecting sand had got agitated and was looking hard at the P.C. who was talking to Peiris mudalali. After the P. C. left, we approached Peries mudalali and told him that Jane had directed us to him. He was very helpful and pointed out Jane's, son who was working for him. He was the person who was found to be agitated a little while earlier, when the P. C. was talking to Peries mudalali.

We located Norbert's house and having collected my crew from Panadura, waited close to Norbert's house till it turned dark. Around 7.15 p.m. we crashed into Norbert's house, bundled Norbert into the car and made a bee line to the C.I.D. office, locked him up in a separate cell, and took the key along with me.

Confession

On the following morning around 6.30 a.m. we took Norbert for questioning, and he had by now realised that he had been brought to the Fourth Floor.

I told Norbert, that he has been brought in for the murder of Madam Daisy, and that we had enough and more proof. He thought for a while, brokedown, and admitted that he had committed the crime and stated as follows:

According to Norbert, as his mother did not come home as promised by her when she was informed of his father's sickness he decided to come down to Panadura. Madam Daisy informed him that she had left that morning, and requested him to have some breakfast and leave. At that stage she was lighting the altar lamp dressed in a thin transparent housecoat without an underskirt, and the rays of the sun that came through the window passed through her housecoat silhouetting her. On seeing this, he had got sexually aroused, also he new that there was no one else in the house. Daisy, who did not realise all this, got onto a stool to light the altar lamp. At that moment Norbert had grabbed her, but she had dealt him a hard slap in return. In this melee the altar lamp had fallen and started burning on the stand. Norbert had given a hard kick and she had gone reeling down. Norbert got onto a chair, extinguished the flame and kept the altar lamp back on its stand. Then he put her down and sexually assaulted her. She had resisted but he had used his full strength and throttled her.

While leaving the house, he took Rs. 50 which was in the telephone book and returned to Kaduwela. He was positive that no one saw him entering the house or leaving the house. When he went home, he did not tell his mother or any one else that he had come to Panadura that day.

Report

I got the accused remanded, to be produced in M. C. Panadura on the following Monday and went to the office of the Registrar of Fingerprints which is a section of the C.I.D. and perused the fingerprint report of the scene. As there was no necessity for fingerprints the altar lamp had not been fingerprinted. I got this finger-printed and found there were two decipherable prints.

When the accused was produced in Courts the next morning, I got the Panadura Police to file a motion in Courts for the accused to give his finger and palm prints in courts, to compare with the prints found at the scene of murder.

This being done, the R.F.P. reported to Court that prints at the scene of murder were compared with the prints of the accused Norbert, and that they were identical.

Panadura Police filed plaint under Section 296. C.P.C. in M.C. Panadura against Akmeemanage Norbert for the murder of Daisy Merle De Zoysa.

After the conclusion of the case in M.C. Panadura, the Magistrate committed the case to Supreme Court, Kalutara.

When this case came up for trial at Supreme Court, Kalutara, Police had to get down crowd control squads to check the crowds who had come to witness the proceedings.

On the first date of trial the crown led the evidence of D.M.O. Panadura followed by the Registrar of Fingerprints, the Police and the case was closed for the prosecution.

On the following day the accused Norbert did not make a statement from the dock.

The Foreman of the Jury asked two questions from the accused. Whether he visited the house where this murder took place after 20th March 1962 or whether he was taken by the Police to the scene of murder after he was arrested. To which the accused replied in the negative.

The Jury returned after about 10 minutes and delivered an unanimous verdict of "guilty" and his Lordship passed judgement on the accused Norbert, to be executed by hanging at Welikanda Prison till he was dead. The accused appealed against this sentence but the appeal was dismissed. Subsequently, the accused, Akmeemanage Norbert, was executed by hanging at Welikanda Prisons and was buried in the presence of Prison Officials in an unmarked grave.

(All names are fictitious)