Review by Firoze Sameer The launch of Prof. Ravindra Fernando’s book ‘Murders at the Vicarage – The Mathew Peiris case’ was held on August 5 at the OPA auditorium in Colombo with film director Chandran Rutnam, former Attorney General Tilak Marapana and publisher Vijitha Yapa gracing the occasion. Rutnam, in his interesting address, announced the [...]

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Crime of a unique nature

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Review by Firoze Sameer
The launch of Prof. Ravindra Fernando’s book ‘Murders at the Vicarage – The Mathew Peiris case’ was held on August 5 at the OPA auditorium in Colombo with film director Chandran Rutnam, former Attorney General Tilak Marapana and publisher Vijitha Yapa gracing the occasion.

Rutnam, in his interesting address, announced the movie titled ‘According to Mathew’, starring Alston Koch and Jaqueline Fernandez, and was planned for simultaneous release in Colombo and Hollywood in October this year. He revealed the movie was based on the material found in court records and Justice AC Alles’ book published in 1992.

Marapana, who was at that time the Deputy Solicitor General, recounted extensively on his uphill task in bringing the murderers to book. He was assisted by Senior State Counsel C.R. de Silva and State Counsel Gamini Ameratunga in the Trial-at-Bar, comprising Justices Tissa Bandaranayake (President), P. Ramanathan and D.C.W. Wickramasekera.

Prof. Fernando deserves to be commended in having taken great pains to recount a crime of a unique nature, where the anti-diabetic drug Euglucon was used to kill two non-diabetic people.Justice A.C. Alles’s book on the murder, comprising 14-chapters in 217-pages, recounts the terrible tragedy of the murders of Russel Ingram and Eunice Peiris at the Vicarage of St Paul’s Church in Kynsey Road, Colombo, in addition to relating the Van Bulow Case which relates to murder by insulin. Prof. Fernando goes one great step further in his 545-page book, devoting 134-pages to the trial and skillfully summarising the judgment of the Trail-at-Bar of 612-pages in 241-pages.

Judgment
The judgment, read by Justice Tissa Bandaranayake on February 15, 1984 reportedly took 9½-hours ending at 6.30-pm. It gave an in-depth account and incisive analysis of every conceivable aspect, medical and otherwise, which required to have been probed and examined. By such profound professional approach, the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt how Russel Ingram, 32, and Ms. Eunice Peiris, 59, came by their tragic deaths during a space of seven months on August 10, 1978 and 19 March, 1979, respectively. They died on account of having been ingested on more than one occasion with strong doses of the anti-diabetic drug glibenclamide (Euglucon). The drug caused blood sugar levels to drop to an astounding zero, leading to stupor or unconscious condition resulting in irreversible brain damage, and, in this hypoglycaemic state of over a few weeks, eventual death.

Rev. Peiris, who was also an exorcist, fed the victims anti-diabetic tablets when they resided at the Vicarage. From the evidence of the nurses, his subsequent daily visits to the General Hospital, feeding the unconscious patient liquids containing anti-diabetic drugs via the nasal feed, causing the patient to suffer hypoglycaemic attacks, was decidedly diabolical. Such condition subsided with the infusion of dextrose by the hospital staff.

On June 9, 1978, Russel lying ill in bed drowsily tells his dad, Alex Ingram, “Daddy, I can sleep, sleep and sleep,” leading to his death on August 10. One is inevitably reminded of a scene in The Godfather movie, Don Corleone, seeing his bullet-riddled son Sonny’s body at the undertakers, pathetically stating: “Look how they massacred my boy.” Alex would have harboured such harrowing sentiments when he broke down weeping while giving evidence, which the court believed in its entirety. So was Dalrene’s sister, Brigette Jackson’s evidence for the prosecution, inter alia, which led to the nailing of the culprits.

Postmortem
The pathological and judicial postmortem examinations conducted on Russel and Eunice by Prof. A.H. Sheriffdeen and Colombo’s JMO Dr. Subramanian, apart from an extensive series of tests which eliminated hyperplasia, adenomatosis and nesidioblastosis, showed no trace of insulinoma, or an islet or beta cell tumour of the pancreas or its ectopic tissue, which secretes insulin, and hence cleared the patients of any disease.

Medical experts
The phalanx of medical specialist whose expertise was sought at various times included Prof. Navaratne, Dr. Dayasiri Fernando, Dr. Nagaratnam, Dr. (Ms.) Balasubramaniam, Dr. Sathanathan, Dr. PAP Joseph, Dr. (Ms.) Kanthi Pinto, Dr. (Ms.) Ruwanpathirana, Dr. (Ms.) Anula Wijesundera, Dr. Wijesiriwardena, Dr. Kura Banagala, Dr. Mohan de Silva, Dr. Lakshman Weerasena, Dr. EV Peiris, Dr. JGC Peiris, Dr. Terrence de Silva, Dr. Karunakaran, Dr. H.R. Wickramasingha, Dr. (Ms.) Panditharatne, and Dr. S.C. Abeysuriya, a defence witness, whose opinion was considered by the court as irrelevant.

Motive
Motive for these murders was established by the prosecution as the amatory nexus which existed between Rev. Pieris and Dalrene, both with families of three children each, allegedly working jointly to eliminate their respective spouses.

The basic premise which featured in this sordid episode is the deep trust people had naturally reposed in the priest in robes. Also their gullibility in accepting his claims of interacting with angels, as well as experiencing alleged stigmata on his palms. The complaisant and passive demeanour of Russel’s wife Dalrene, who went along with the priest without a hint of caution or protest, while her husband was being protractedly murdered in stages, sadly contributed towards such misguided trust.

Rev. Peiris was defended by President’s Counsel R.I. Obeysekere assisted by his brother Anil Obeysekere, D.M.S. Gunasekera, K.Y. Perera, Jayantha Weerasinghe, Upali Senaratne and Manel Gunatileke. Dalrene was defended by Attorney-at-Law Cecil Goonewardene, assisted by attorneys Pani Illangakoon, Ananda Malalgoda, Champani Padmasekere and Vijitha de Alwis.

Verdict
The question basic to the entire case was articulated on corpus delicti, which had been established, referred to the principle that a crime must have been proven to have occurred and the death of the victim a result of the crime, before a person can be convicted of committing that crime. Also, mens rea, the intention or knowledge of wrongdoing that constitutes part of a crime, was established to the satisfaction of the court. Both accused were sentenced to death by the High Court bench of the three judges on 15 February, 1984. The death sentences were commuted to life sentences on June 28, 1985.

However, in a surprising turn of events, Dalrene was acquitted of all charges by the three-judge bench of the Court of Appeal comprising Justices Justin Abeywardene (President), N.R.M. Dheeraratne and A.S. Wijetunga. The bench delivered its 101-page judgment on February 12, 1988. It naturally prompted Justice A.C. Alles to comment thus in his book: “It is therefore respectfully submitted, with all due deference to the Judges of the Court of Appeal, that they had misdirected themselves in coming to the conclusion that Dalrene did not share a common intention with Mathew Peiris to kill her husband. It is difficult to resist the conclusion that judicial sympathy appears to have outweighed the judgment of the Judges in acquitting Dalrene in respect of the charge relating to Russel’s death.”

Lovers
Alles’ premise evidently springs from a comment he made pertaining to the culpability of Wimala Wijewardene and her amorous connection with the first accused Ven. Buddharakkitha Thera in the S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike assassination, thus: “When two young lovers sleep on the same bed they do not have the time or the inclinations to speak of anything else except themselves in the happiness of their intimacy, but when a man sleeps with his mistress it is not the words of love that pass between them but rather the more mundane affairs of everyday life and the secrets hidden in each other’s hearts which are freely and openly disclosed.”

Appeal
Rev. Mathew’s appeal to the Supreme Court was dismissed on February 03, 1992 by a bench comprising Justices Kulatunga (President), Wadugodapitiya and Priyantha Perera. After serving some 15-years, his release under a general amnesty from prison in November, 1997, Rev. Peiris died in his home in Moratuwa on May 12, 1998. He was 80-years old.

Books cited during the course of the trial included: Body, Mind and Sugar by E.M. Abrahamson and A.W. Pezet; Text Book on Hypogycaemia by Marks & Rose 2nd Ed. 1981; Hypogycaemia by Turner, Rubenstein & Foster appearing in the medical journal International Medicine Vol.1 Sep-1981; Clinical Pharmacology by Laurence and Bennet; Priestley’s ‘Moynihan Oration’85-cases on insulinoma; Prof. Berbosa’s Master of surgery degree thesis, and Archives of Surgery Vol. 115 May 1980 by the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, apart from Rev. Peiris’s manuscripts on Damn the Bloody Exorcist and To Hell with the Devil.

In view of the strong similarities of circumstantial evidence in this case and the Chandrasekara Dias murder of August 30, 1979, one is inevitably prone to rethink whether the outcome of that sensational case would have been different had it been heard by such a splendid and sharp Trial-at-Bar court. In that case, recounted by Alles in his Vol.-9 of the Famous Criminal Cases of Sri Lanka, the two accused, the deceased’s wife Rohini Dias and his driver Nimal Fernando, who also had an amatory nexus, were unanimously acquitted by a seven member Sinhala-speaking jury on September 04, 1982.

Boook facts

  • Murders at the Vicarage – The Mathew Peiris case
  • By Prof. Ravindra Fernando [Vijitha Yapa Publications:  First Edition July-2015]

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