Did outraged mistress kill Casanova?

It was not a surprise at all to note the sudden surge in domestic violence that had spilled out of control in recent times owing to many factors. Such violence has resulted in the deaths of many people who had been brutally killed in the past for no fault of theirs. Many such cases have surfaced in the recent few months from different parts of the country that have sent shock waves us. It was only three weeks ago that a man was arrested by the police for killing his father, mother and sister by poisoning their food at his residence at Wellawatte to grab the gold jewellery they wore on that day.

In another instance in Kekirawa in the North Central Province, a disgruntled recruit soldier on leave stabbed his beloved schoolgirl to death because she refused to marry him. The stabbing took place at the house of the soldier in the presence of his mother and the girl's mother following a heated argument.

Hardly a week goes by and we hear another bizarre sex related crime committed by a young mistress of a wealthy lawyer in the Athurugiriya area.

Sledge hammer

The twenty-two-year-old mistress confessed to police that she was compelled to smash her lover's head with a sledge hammer as she found him to be a sex pervert who constantly harassed her while going to bed with her.

She told police that Jayawardena chained her on many occasions and beat her and was in the habit of biting her body to satisfy his abnormal carnal desires. She said she found it almost impossible to live with a man who was obsessed with an unnatural sexual appetite. Although she claimed that she was his legal spouse she had no documentary proof to support her claim. She was a girl from Poddala, Galle.

She met Wilson Jayawardena some time back and their relationship blossomed into a love affair soon. She thereafter went to live with him as his spouse when Jayawardena purchased a luxury house at Athurugiriya two months ago. Jayawardena also sold a valuable house and property which he owned at Matara prior to purchasing the property at Athurugiriya, police said.

Victim

Police identified the victim as Wilson Jayawardena, a lawyer who lived at his two storied mansion at Athurugiriya with his young mistress. Although Jayawardena was a married man, his estranged wife lived separately with his two grown up sons aged 29 and 27 in a house at Dehiwela.

The couple, however was not legally separated although Jayawardena continued to live with different mistresses at different times in many houses over the years. Wilson Jayawardena was a well-known lawyer who had a lucrative legal practice in Galle and elsewhere and was able to amass a fortune. He had a roving eye for young and beautiful women. He often cultivated a friendship with them by spending lavishly. He often met the women at legal consultation at his private chambers or at his residence, sources said.

The horrible incident occurred in the wee hours of the morning on September 7 when Wilson Jayawardena stood on the balcony of his home around 2.a.m. following a quarrel with his mistress. His young mistress then grabbed a sledge hammer without being noticed by him and dealt several blows on his head with all her might. The blows were fatal and he slumped on the balcony floor unconscious bleeding profusely. While he groaned desperately blood oozed off from his head smearing the walls in the upstair balcony.

Tailspin

The young mistress went into a tailspin bemused not knowing what her next move would be. By then a few minutes had lapsed and something told that her man was dead as he lay motionless on the floor. She then pondered for a while and a thought flashed across her mind.

She wanted to throw his body from the balcony and tell the police that he leaped to his death but hesitated for a while. Instead she dragged his body down the staircase all by herself using sheer physical force and laid the body between his two luxury vehicles.

Jayawardena was a wealthy man who owned a luxury Prado Vehicle and a Toyota Albion car besides other assets. Her initial idea was to lift his body to a vehicle so that she could take it to a lonely spot and dump it there.

Surprisingly she found it impossible to lift the body and place it inside a vehicle. She gave up hopes and planned another strategy. She decided to tell the police that an armed gang broke into their home in the wee hours of the morning and abducted her husband and later killed him down stairs. She quickly ran upstairs and washed the blood stains and covered the remaining stains on the wall with paint so that police would not suspect foul play.

Before dawn she rang up the police emergency 119 and informed them that her husband was killed by a gang who stormed into the house that night. The police emergency unit then relayed the message to Athurugiriya police station and the OIC Crimes Athurugiriya Police station Inspector R.K Pushpakumara rushed to the house at Jayagath Mawatha on the 4th lane at Athurugiriya.

However, after questioning the woman at length police learnt the woman had cooked up a story after killing her husband. Police also found fake and a genuine national identity cards of the murdered man. They also found a hair wig that belonged to the victim.

Fake identity card

“The fake national identity card showed that he was born in 1972. This was done to deceive young women whom he wanted to attract,” police said.

Police sources said Wilson Jayawardena had two criminal cases pending against him before the Galle and the Aluthgama Magistrate Courts. One case was regarding a sexual molestation of a girl while the other was regarding threatening a person with death.

However, nobody knows for sure whether the young mistress killed Jayawardena due to sudden provocation or whether it was premeditated murder. The Kaduwela Magistrate Mrs Lanka Jayaratne visited the scene and made her observations.

The suspect was later produced in court and was remanded till September 21 until investigations are over. The Nugegoda SP Saliya de Silva has directed OIC Athurugiriya Inspector Kapila Senanayake and OIC Crimes Inspector Pushpa Kumara to further investigate whether other persons were involved in the murder.