KILLER HUSBAND21 CAGED FOR LIFE
»»Jealous thug guilty of stabbing his wife to death »»Victim’s mum is ‘in despair’ at loss of daughter
A JEALOUS and controlling husband who knifed his wife to death was jailed for life yesterday as the victim’s mother told her: “Forgive me for not protecting you.”
Renato Gehlen stabbed and slashed his 37-year-old French spouse Anne Colomines after she started a relationship with another man and then tried to convince gardai she had killed herself.
Gehlen, a Brazilian national, was convicted by unanimous jury verdict of murdering Ms Colomines at the home they shared in Dorset Square, Gardiner Street Upper, Dublin, on October 25, 2017.
His trial heard that Ms Colomines had started seeing another man and told her husband she wanted a divorce.
He claimed that she stabbed herself four times, including a fatal injury that penetrated her heart and a 22cm long knife wound across her neck. State
Pathologist Dr Linda Mulligan told the trial it was “highly unlikely” that Ms Colomines inflicted the injuries on herself.
The pathologist also pointed out that there were defensive type injuries to Ms Colomines’ hands, often seen when a person tries to block a knife attack. In returning their verdict last month, the jury accepted the State’s case that Gehlen, 37, had displayed the “ultimate in toxic masculinity” by stabbing his wife to death in an effort to control the end of their marriage.
In his closing speech, prosecution counsel Shane Costelloe argued that Gehlen “lost control” of his wife and his marriage and could not handle it, so he stabbed her through the heart.
Gehlen’s actions that night, counsel said, were “the last roll of the dice” and amounted to “the ultimate in toxic masculinity by trying to regain what he saw as controlling the situation and him putting the final full stop at the end of their marriage, not her”.
The court heard statements written by the deceased’s mother Danielle Gallard, sister Alexandra, father Jean-louis Colomines and other family members.
Danielle, who was not able to travel in person from France, wrote that her life has lost meaning since her daughter’s death. She added: “Anne was my friend, my love, a beautiful, intelligent woman.”
In a written statement to the court Jean-louis said the “sudden and horrendous loss” of his child was a “huge shock”.
His heart is torn, he added, as he can no longer hear his daughter’s voice, her laughter or see her smile.
Danielle said her “dreams and hope and the radiance of my daughter have disappeared forever. 37 years of life, I am in despair not to hear your voice and see your smile. My life has lost meaning”.
She added: “Forgive me for not protecting you.
“Every day I hear your call, your screams of panic and pain. Rest in peace. Your mum will always love you.”
Alexandra described her “intense pain” and heartbreak and recalled going to a Dublin morgue to identify her little sister’s body and then to a funeral home to choose a coffin.
She also went to the apartment where Anne was murdered to gather her things and to the office at Paypal where Anne had worked.
She said: “I saw your mug, your scarf, I have met all of your friends who miss you terribly.”
Judge Michael Macgrath sentenced Gehlen to the mandatory life term and offered his condolences to the Colomines family, whose grief he said was made “all the more harrowing” by the accused’s attempt to say that Ms Colomines had killed herself.
Every day I hear your call, your screams of pain DANIELLE COLOMINES