Kotakethana murders: Ruling based on DNA evidence

Though there were no eyewitnesses to the crime, DNA evidence was ultimately instrumental in convincing the Ratnapura High Court to find the accused in the Kotakethana double murder guilty.

Accordingly, High Court Judge Lanka Jayaratne sentenced the accused in the murder of a mother and daughter to death.

The Judge rejected the statement given by the accused, Neil Lakshman, in his defence that he was not present at the house of the victims, which was the scene of the crime. If the accused was not present at the scene as he claimed, the judge said he should have explained how traces of his semen were found on the daughter who had been murdered.

The victims, Liyanarachchige Premawathie and her daughter Hewagamage Pushpakumari had been killed by blows struck to their heads from a heavy, sharp weapon. The bodies had thereafter been covered with a mattress and set alight, but neighbours who had arrived on the scene had managed to douse the fire.

In her judgement which ran into 147 pages, Judge Jayaratne had ruled that the prosecution, whose evidence was led by Senior Deputy Solicitor General Lakmali Karunanayaka, had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt. While the defence had attempted to discredit the DNA evidence, it had not been able to present another credible view that effectively countered the scientific evidence presented by the prosecution, stated the judge.

The murders were committed on July 19, 2012. The accused was arrested in 2015 after a DNA sample obtained from the accused returned a match for the semen sample taken from the murdered daughter.

The accused was represented by Attorney-at-Law Chaminda Konpitiya, who had been assigned to him by the State. In her ruling, the judge has commended the attorney for the spirited defence he undertook on behalf of his assigned client.