Pressed her mouth shut when the child woke and called for motherGoes to watch women sleepingA main suspect who was arrested last evening (23rd) by the Criminal Investigations Department in Baduwathugoda, Bemmulla, Gampaha had confessed to the rape and murder of five year old Seya Sadevmi, the Police said.
According to police sources, the suspect, the 32 year-old suspect Dunesh Priyashantha alias Kondaya had made a lengthy confession to the CID.
In it, he had said, “As I was passing by the house of the child whom I abducted, I saw a light coming from a room. The window was opened and I saw three children were sleeping in one bed and a woman in the other.
"I have a habit of secretly watching women sleeping and bathing. I also like children. As I was looking through the window, I saw a girl asleep. I tried the front door handle to enter because I couldn’t jump through the window. The door was unlocked and I entered the room discreetly. I removed the dress the child had on and thrusting it underneath the mattress took the child in my arms. Just then the child woke up and called for her mother.
I carried the child out of the house through the front door tightening my hand on her face and mouth so that her screams won’t be heard. Her mother was fast asleep and didn’t wake up.”
He had peeped into a room in passing and confirmed that everyone was asleep.
In the confession, he had detailed, step by step, to the CID officers how he had raped and killed the little girl, a senior police officer said.
It had been revealed that the suspect had hidden the dead body of the child near a river bank and had gone to his sister’s home in Ingammaruwa.
A brother of the suspect had asked him next morning why he was frightened, and he had not told him anything. As he had questioned him several times he had told his brother that he is the perpetrator of the rape and murder of the girl and told him with threats, not to reveal anything.
The brother of the suspect was arrested first regarding the incident and as the police had continued to question him the root cause of the murder was revealed. Accordingly the police was able to apprehend the suspect who is his brother, while hiding.
It was revealed that the suspect was a school dropout had spent most of his life in the wilderness. He had been hiding in his sister’s house in Kotadeniyawa to escape the remonstrations of the villagers after he had abducted and molested a girl in Gampaha area. He had worked in a coconut mill in the area.
The suspect used to sleep in the porch of the same house. It was revealed that when the owners had woken up he was nowhere to be found.
It was revealed that the suspect had habit of roaming about the village through the night observing women sleeping, while the owners believed him asleep in their porch.