The trial of a 43-year-old man accused of the murder of his wife at their home in Cork city almost two years ago has been told that the mother-of-one was found dead in a heavily bloodstained bedroom having sustained a 14cm single knife wound to her neck.
Regin Parithapara Rajan pleaded not guilty to the murder of his wife Deepa Dinamani at their home at Cardinal Court, Wilton, in Cork city, on 14 July 2023, on the opening day of his trial at the Central Criminal Court in Cork.
In his opening statement to the jury, Prosecution Senior Counsel Sean Gillane outlined the background to the case.
He said Ms Dinamani was originally from Kerala in southern India. She was a chartered accountant who had come to Cork with her husband and five-year-old son in March 2023 to work with a multinational financial services company.
Mr Gillane said she was "a very well-regarded young woman, as a good worker and colleague".
Interested in travel, she spoke fluent English, and as well as being a much loved daughter, Ms Dinamani provided "financial assistance" to her retired parents and younger brother in India.
He said the couple were from the same area but did not meet until 2015 when they married. They had a son in 2018. In 2022, Ms Dinamani began researching a job abroad.
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In the spring of 2023, she starting working in Cork having secured a three-bedroom rental house at Cardinal Court in Wilton.
The couple sub-let a room to a nurse who worked locally at Cork University Hospital.
Mr Gillane told jurors that they would hear evidence that by the summer of 2023 difficulties had developed in the couple's marriage, that the relationship 'had cooled' and they were sleeping in separate bedrooms and that Ms Dinamani was considering divorce.
He said the jury will hear evidence that on 14 July 2023, Mr Rajan alledgedly rang a friend and asked him to collect their young son from summer camp, telling him that he had a job interview.
It will be the State's case that no such interview existed.
Mr Gillane said the evidence will be that after looking after the couple's child for the day, and getting no reply when he tried to contact Mr Rajan, the friend rang the nurse who was sub-letting the room saying he was trying to arrange for Mr Rajan to pick up the child but had not received a reply.
She will say that she was in the house at the time and had not noticed "anything untoward", that she thought the house was empty.
When the couple arrived to the house with the young child, the friend's evidence will be that he spoke with Mr Rajan. He will say there was a smell of alcohol in the house. The child went upstairs and they discussed the interview. The man, his wife and the nurse then went for a short walk. On his return, Mr Rajan asked to speak to him.
His evidence will be that "to his shock" Mr Rajan allegedly said to him he had killed his wife and that she was inside and that he had stabbed her.
It will be alleged that both his friend and Mr Rajan rang 999 at around 10pm and that Mr Rajan allegedly said during the call to the emergency services that he killed his wife.
When gardaí arrived at the house, they found the body of Ms Dinamani in a heavily bloodstained bedroom.
"It was immediately apparent that she had passed and that nothing could be done. An investigation was launched and a bloodstained knife was recovered," Mr Gillane told the jury.
The State's will allege that a palm print of the accused was found on a recovered knife which was purchased by Mr Rajan two days earlier.
There will also be evidence of a conversation about collecting the young couple's son, and there was no job interview.
A jury of seven women and five men have been sworn in to hear the trial which is expected to last for up to three weeks before Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford.
It is due to resume at 2pm tomorrow.
