The brother of 38-year-old Deepa Dinamani, who was murdered at her home in Wilton in Cork almost two years ago, has said words cannot describe the depth of pain, grief and devastation his family have had to endure since her death.
Ms Dinamani's husband, Regin Rajan, has been sentenced to life imprisonment after a Central Criminal Court jury unanimously found him guilty of her murder at the conclusion of his trial early last month.
Ms Dinamani moved from India to Ireland with her husband and their then five-year old son in March 2023.
They settled in Cork, where she took up a job as a senior manager with an international finance company.
But while her professional life was progressing, her marriage was collapsing. She was not happy and wanted a divorce, but her husband would not agree and could not countenance it.
They were living separate lives in the same house, the trial was later told.
On 14 July 2023 - four months after moving to Ireland - gardaí rushed to the couple's home at Cardinal Court in Wilton, after Rajan made a 999 call and confessed to the call taker that he had killed his wife.
Members of the Garda Armed Support Unit found Ms Dinamani's partially-clothed body wrapped in a duvet on a blood-soaked bed in her upstairs bedroom. She had been stabbed with a kitchen knife Rajan had bought two days earlier in Tesco.
Rajan confessed to several people that he had killed his wife, including to a friend as well as to a garda who attended the scene after his wife's death.
He was arrested and charged with Ms Dinamani's murder, but pleaded not guilty at his trial in March.
Rajan told the jury what happened was a tragic accident, that his wife picked up the carving knife when he went to her bedroom to retrieve his passport and she got stabbed as he struggled to take the knife from her.
The jury rejected Rajan's story and found him guilty in a unanimous verdict.
In a victim impact statement delivered at Rajan's sentencing hearing in Cork this morning, Ullas Dinamani described his sister as his closest friend and his confidante.
"There are no words that can truly convey the depth of pain, grief and devastation my family and I have been living with since July 14th 2023 - the day my only sister, my best friend, was taken from us in the most horrific way," he told Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford via videolink from India.
"We shared everything - our hopes, our fears, our joys. Her presence brought happiness to our home, and her absence left an unbearable void that we are still struggling to live with every day."
Mr Dinamani described the impact his sister's murder has had on his parents. He said his mother still breaks down, often without warning, overcome with sorrow.
"There's not a single day that passes without thinking of her, without feeling her absence"
"I sit there helplessly, unable to ease her pain," he said.
He said his father, who is "one of the toughest men I have ever seen", is now broken by the loss of his beloved daughter.
"But," he added, "perhaps the most heartbreaking impact has been on her six-year-old son - a child adored by his mother, who shared a deep, loving bond with her. No child should ever have to experience such trauma, to lose their mother in such a cruel way in the early stages of his life.
"He misses her. He sometimes asks questions which are not easy to answer. He is very fond of me and my parents. We try to give him love, support and a sense of normalcy, but we know nothing can ever replace the love of his mother."
Mr Dinamani said his sister's murder had stolen her future and that of his family.
"This tragedy has left a permanent scar on our family," he said. "There's not a single day that passes without thinking of her, without feeling her absence. Birthdays, festivals, even ordinary days - all are tainted by grief. The pain doesn't fade, it lives with us."
Mr Dinamani said his family's hope was that justice would be served, as a way of honouring the life of his sister.
"Her memory deserves dignity and her son deserves to grow up knowing that the truth was seen, heard and acknowledged," he said.
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'A deliberate and premeditated attack'
Outlining details of the case to the court, Detective Sergeant Michelle O'Leary said there could be no justification for the attack on Ms Dinamani.
"This was a deliberate and premeditated attack that was carried out with no hesitation," she said. "There is no doubt of Regin Rajan's intent and the fact that he was well aware of the probable consequences of his actions, namely the loss of life of his wife, Deepa Dinamani."
Imposing a life sentence on Rajan, Ms Justice Lankford described his evidence as a tissue of lies which besmirched Ms Dinamani's good name.
She said the jury rejected his evidence and accepted the "overwhelming" evidence of the State.
