Crossbow killer faces life sentence

A spurned husband who shot his heavily pregnant ex-wife dead with a crossbow after planning the revenge execution for more than three years is facing a life sentence.

Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo, 51, amassed an armoury of weapons before springing from his hideout in the garden shed and storming Devi Unmathallegadoo’s home in Ilford, east London.

Wielding two crossbows, he chased her new husband Imtiaz Muhammad into the kitchen before firing into her former partner’s stomach as she fled upstairs.

The 34-year-old died after the 18-inch hunting bolt pierced her heart but ‘miraculously missed’ her unborn child who survived following an emergency caesarean section.

Unmathallegadoo was convicted of murder by an Old Bailey jury after a retrial.

The first trial was halted in April after it emerged one of the jurors trying the killer had been ‘making diagnoses of a psychiatric kind’.

The juror said body-worn footage of Unmathallegadoo ‘displays signs of someone’ with certain psychiatric conditions.

Unmathallegadoo showed no trace of emotion as Judge Mark Lucraft told him: ‘You have been convicted of a most horrendous crime.’

The jury had deliberated for four and half hours.

The court heard Devi’s parents had arranged her marriage to Unmathallegadoo when she was 15, but the unhappy relationship ended in 2012.

Unmathallegadoo took time off from his role as site manager at Newham General Hospital due to the ‘stress’ of the breakup, then abruptly resigned in early 2013.

She then began a relationship with builder Mr Muhammad, who had decorated the newlyweds’ kitchen.

Eventually the moved into together while her estranged husband spied on the couple and plotted his revenge.

Prosecutor Richard Horwell QC said the former hospital site manager planned the murder for more than three years while his hatred ‘grew and festered’.

He was undeterred when nests of weapons he had planted in foliage near the couple’s house were discovered and handed in to police by a neighbour in November 2017.

The killer carried out further surveillance on the home and began ‘replacing his cache with fresh weapons’ bought on eBay.

The same neighbour, Jennifer Chalmers found two crossbows, harpoon spears and kitchen knives while pruning the same area of bushes in March last year.

The police again removed them but just two days after the find the killer again took steps to replenish his armoury.

‘She pulled the bags out and found two crossbows, there were also numerous crossbow bolts,’ Mr Horwell said.

‘There was a selection of kitchen knives, harpoon spears, a yellow pry bar and two plastic spray bottles which contained liquid there was also a small red jewellery bag which appeared to contain a small amount of dress jewellery.

By 12 November last year he had bought another two crossbows, bolts, a hammer, a knife in a homemade sheath, cable ties and duct tape.

His plan was to restrain the couple and kill them along with their eagerly anticipated child.

The prosecutor said: ‘From 2015 the defendant had started to make preparations for the attack and by March last year at the very least he was storing his weapons and the necessary equipment to carry out this attack in close proximity to Devi’s home which was where the attack was to be carried out.

‘In March last year his cache of weapons and equipment was discovered by chance by a member of the public.

‘That discovery was a significant setback to the defendant’s plans, but such was his determination to carry out the attack that within days of the chance discovery and removal he had started to replace his cache with fresh weapons and equipment.

‘Some take revenge instantly, others take their time, time for the hatred to grow and fester.

‘There can be no doubt the defendant took his time, several years, before killing the woman who used to be his wife.

‘Imtiaz ran from the shed to the house pursued by the defendant,’ said Mr Horwell.

‘Imtiaz then ran through the back door which led to the kitchen, shouting for Devi, who was in the kitchen, to run.

‘The two ran from the kitchen into the hallway which led to the front door, with the defendant in close pursuit.

‘Devi turned left and ran up the stairs, whereas Imtiaz ran out of the front door.

‘When outside, Imtiaz turned and saw the defendant, who was now at the bottom of the stairs, shoot Devi who was halfway up the stairs.

‘The defendant who had been spending an increasing amount of time watching the house and recording the movements of the occupants and approaching and talking to his children, must have been aware of her advanced pregnancy.

‘This attack was deliberately designed to take place before Devi had given birth to her child.

‘It seemed likely that about 14 inches of the bolt had penetrated her body.

‘The body had penetrated deep inside her body into her heart and desperate efforts were made to save her but the extent of her injuries and the loss of blood and the shock to her system was such that she suffered a cardiac arrest and despite initial resuscitation she could not be saved and she was pronounced dead.’

After his arrest Unmathallegadoo interrupted officers to claim: ‘I didn’t shoot her I was shooting Imtiaz’.

When he was told he had shot his ex-wife and narrowly avoided killing her unborn baby he remarked: ‘Well that’s unfortunate’.

Later at Romford police station, he was told Devi had died to which he replied: ‘Oh no’, and ‘put his hand on his forehead’.

Mr Horwell added: ‘We suggest that was not a genuine expression of regret.

‘He had collected and put together the necessary equipment to terrorise and hold captive his intended targets.

‘It was a cold-blooded execution by a man who had a resolute desire for revenge and who had been consumed by hatred for a former wife who had left him for another man.’

Giving evidence Mr Muhammad said his wife told him Unmathallegadoo had tried to contact the children in the months leading up to the killing, offering to take them out.

He had been asking his daughter about whether there was ‘a lock on the shed door’.

‘[Sana] was nervous, very scared,’ Mr Muhammad continued, adding: ‘I said don’t worry. I never believed he can go that crazy, you know.

‘Sana was thinking he’s up to something; why’s he asking about the shed?’

The builder described how he found Unmathallegadoo in the shed and he ‘gave me a smile’ as he pointed one of the crossbows at his chest.

‘I was face-to-face looking at him,’ he said.

‘I was so shocked I didn’t say anything.’

Mr Muhammad said he ran through the house and made for the front door, only to turn and see Sana running up the stairs.

‘She was running up the stairs and Ram was coming through the corridor with the crossbow,’ he continued.

Unmathallegadoo ‘didn’t waste a second’ in taking up a position at the foot of the stairs before raising the weapon and firing.

Mr Muhammad said he could only see the tip of the arrow protruding from Sana’s left thigh.

‘He didn’t even look at me; his focus was just on her,’ he told jurors.

‘I was screaming for help.

‘He had two crossbows on his shoulder. I was thinking he used one and now the second one might be for me.’

Unmathallegadoo claimed he only went to their home to ‘confront Imtiaz’ about him supposedly ‘forcing’ his daughter to live as a Muslim.

He claimed he accidentally pulled the trigger while aiming for the bannister to stop him as he ran upstairs, pushing in front of Devi.

Unmathallegadoo claimed he was ‘scared’ of Mr Muhammad and brought the weapons along with him as a ‘deterrent’ so he would not be attacked during their face-off.

He told jurors he hid in the shed hoping to ‘seize the opportunity when he is alone and then surprise him and talk to him one-to-one’.

Unmathallegadoo said he ‘aimed the crossbow at the bannister’ intending to fire at the wood to ‘make a noise’ and startle the pair into halting as they neared the top of the staircase.

He described how his ‘hand was already on the trigger’ as he manoeuvred the weapon to see whether the safety catch was engaged.

‘While I was doing that movement, my finger was on it and it just went,’ the killer added.

‘I can’t explain it. It just went; it discharged.’

Bespectacled Unmathallegadoo maintained he did not intend to shoot his ex-wife and told the court: ‘I came to this trial not because I wanted to get the truth out of my chest. I know where I’m gonna end up.

‘I will live with the tragedy all my life but I will go down with the truth.

‘No one here knows completely exactly what happened except me.’

He added: ‘At that time it was difficult for me because I was still wrestling with my thoughts and I was in such a state, I was traumatised.

‘I’m normally a very calm person but inside my mind there’s a torment.’

Unmathallegadoo, of no fixed address, denied but was convicted of murder.

He was remanded in custody ahead of sentence on Friday 29 November.