Murder victim said marrying husband was biggest mistake of her life
Olivia Kelleher
A mother of one who died after her throat was cut in a “single swipe” told a man she was texting on a dating site that marrying her husband was the “biggest mistake” of her life, a murder trial has heard.
Regin Parithapara Rajan (43) has denied the murder of his 38-year-old wife Deepa Paruthiyezhuth Dinamani (38) at the property they were renting in Wilton in Cork on July 14th, 2023. The Indian couple moved to Ireland four months before Deepa was found dead in a blood-soaked bedroom in her new home.
A sitting of the Central Criminal Court in Cork on Tuesday heard that Deepa was exchanging WhatsApp messages with an Indian man based in London in the weeks before she died from massive blood loss after sustaining a 14cm cut to her throat.
The jury of seven women and five men heard evidence from Prasad Jayarathinam who travelled from the UK for the case. He said that he exchanged messages with a person who identified herself as Deepa in a random profile match on online dating site Match.com.
The witness said that he went by the nickname “Jay” on the website and exchanged messages with Deepa for about a month before her death.
Mr Jayarathinam said that he and Deepa never met in person. However, his impression of her was that she was a “very caring” person who loved her young son. He offered his condolences to her family following the loss of her life.
On her profile on Match.com Deepa was described as being separated and not divorced. Her interests were listed as reading, yoga and cooking.
Prosecution counsel Sean Gillane, asked the witness if Deepa had ever discussed her marriage with him. Mr Jayarathinam said that Deepa said her decision to marry Regin was “the biggest mistake she did in her life”.
Under cross-examination by Brian McInerney, SC , Mr Jayarathinam said that he and Deepa were simply engaging in a “fantasy world” when they messaged each other. Mr McInerney described the messages between the pair as being “voluminous” in nature.
He read a number of messages of an intimate nature between Jay and Deepa. Jayarathinam said that these messages were all “fantasy.”
Mr McInerney asked him if he planned to meet up with Deepa in Ireland. He said that whilst they had never met, if Deepa had not died they might have arranged to see each other face to face in Dublin. However, Mr Jayarathinam said that their exchange wouldn’t have gone beyond meeting at the airport.
He said it was “all chat — all imaginary.” He said that he had never exchanged video calls with Deepa. However, he confirmed that they had had two to three voice calls.
At one point Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford told Mr McInerney that his questioning might have seemed “sarcastic” in nature to the witness. She asked the barrister to keep his remarks as “uncomplicated ” as possible.
Meanwhile, evidence was also given by senior phone analyst Susan Cronin. She said on July 6th, 2023 there was a Google search on the phone of the accused Regin Rajan which read “What is a carving knife used for?” The following day the words “carving knife” were googled.
On July 10th Mr Rajan’s phone recorded a Google search on “jail in Ireland”. Later that day the terms “prison facilities in Ireland” and “prison conditions” were searched.
Ms Cronin said that Regin Rajan’s phone was signed up to a number of dating websites, including Eharmony, Bumble, Hinge and Match.com
Ms Cronin also analysed the phone of the late Deepa Dinamani. She said that on July 5th 2023, there was a search recorded which read “what happens when you clear chat on What’s App?”
On the day before Deepa was found dead at her home in Cardinal Court in Wilton, searches were made on her phone in relation to how a person is to know if they are being tracked on WhatsApp.
The Prosecution case has now ended. The defence case will open at noon on Wednesday in front of the jury and Ms Justice Lankford.
