Nimalarajah Mathiyadaranam knifed his 44-year-old estranged partner Nilani Nimalarajah 18 times in a ‘merciless, sustained and extremely brutal’ assault
Nimalarajah Mathiyadaranam admitted the murder of Nilani Nimalarajah(Image: Merseyside Police )
This is the face of the man who bought a block of knives from Asda and duct tape from Poundland before he stabbed his estranged wife to death. Nimalarajah Mathiyadaranam was said to have knifed his former partner Nilani Nimalarajah a total of 18 times in the shop where she worked, Low Cost Food and Wine on Stanley Road in Bootle, due to his “anger” over not being invited to a family celebration.
The 47-year-old defendant earlier donned a “disguise” as he purchased the weapon used in the attack, which snapped due to the ferocity of the “merciless, sustained and extremely brutal” assault, in a supermarket before stashing it in a JD Sports bag and making his way to the scene on a bus. He then downed whisky and “poisoned” himself with a pesticide after killing Nilani, having already been banned from contacting the 44-year-old mum of his three children due to previous episodes of “violence and harassment”.
Mathiyadaranam had denied her murder and possession of a bladed article in a public place and went on trial at Liverpool Crown Court this week. However, his counsel Tim Forte KC this morning asked for his client to be rearraigned before the jury.
Having been seen with his hands together in front of his face prior to the panel of nine men and three women entering courtroom 32, as if in prayer, Mathiyadaranam then admitted both charges in their presence. He had previously pleaded guilty to two charges of breaching his restraining order.
Mathiyadaranam will now be sentenced tomorrow, Friday. Adjourning the case, Judge Brian Cummings KC said: “Mr Mathiyadaranam, stand up please. You have now been convicted of all four counts on the indictment. The next stage in the court process will be your sentence hearing.
“That will take place tomorrow morning. You will be brought to court for the purpose of that hearing. You must attend, and an interpreter will of course be present for the purpose of the proceedings. In the mean time, you remain in custody. Mr Mathiyadaranam, please now go with the officer.”
Discharging the jury, Judge Cummings said: “That brings the trial to an end. I am always extremely grateful to any jury for accepting its responsibility, regardless of the nature of the case.
“I am even more grateful to you, having regard to the extremely grave nature of this case and the extremely unpleasant nature of some of the evidence you have been exposed to. That concludes these proceedings, as far as you are concerned. I discharge you with my thanks for your service on this jury.”
Annabel Darlow KC previously told jurors during the prosecution’s opening yesterday, Wednesday: “On Friday the 20th of June of last year, this defendant, armed with a large knife, went to a convenience store in Bootle here in Liverpool, where his estranged wife, Nilani Nimalarajah, was working. He entered the store and stabbed his wife to death.
“It was a merciless, sustained and extremely brutal attack. He stabbed Nilani at least 18 times, deliberately targeting the areas of her chest and her head. Indeed, he stabbed her with such ferocity that it caused the tip of the knife to be broken off.
“The prosecution’s case is that the defendant deliberately planned this murder. Hours before he killed Nilani, he went to a shop where he purchased a whole block of knives and some duct tape.
“He had become estranged from his family and, indeed, at the time of the killing was subject to court restraining orders, which prohibited, or should have prohibited, him from approaching his elder daughter and Nilani at all. Those orders were imposed following earlier incidents of violence and harassment, committed by this defendant.
“The trigger for Nilani’s murder appears to have been this defendant’s anger and his misplaced sense of pride that he had not been involved or invited into a significant family event. The defendant is of Sri Lankan heritage, and part of his cultural heritage involves the family holding a celebration when a girl has her first menstrual period.
“Nilani’s second daughter had recently celebrated this milestone in her young life, but the defendant had not been invited to the traditional celebration. His reaction was one of the most appalling and pre-meditated violence.
“The killing of Nilani was captured on the CCTV fitted at the shop where Nilani was working. Together with the CCTV and other evidence, the police investigation has successfully built up a comprehensive picture of the defendant’s movements around Liverpool leading up to the killing.
“It will be obvious to you, members of the jury, even from that brief introduction and what you have already heard, that you may find the facts of this case extremely harrowing and upsetting. The footage of the stabbing itself is a graphic portrayal of an appalling attack.
“However natural and understandable it may be that you experience emotions such as horror, sympathy, revulsion and pity, you must not judge this case on the basis of your emotional reactions. Please put emotions to one side and focus objectively and dispassionately on the facts of this case.”
The jury heard that Mathiyadaranam, of Warrington Road in Widnes, moved to the UK from his home country in 2002 before becoming wedded to Nilani by an arranged marriage in 2005. Ms Darlow said of her: “She worked at a shop called Low Cost Food and Wine, which is at 69 Stanley Road in Bootle.
“Above the shop was a flat. At the time of the killing, Nilani lived in that flat together with her three daughters. She was known as a friendly, kind, hardworking lady. The shop itself was owned by a friend of the defendant. He had offered, in about 2015, Nilani and the defendant the chance to work and live in the shop.
“The defendant was known, generally, to have been, in the past, a kind and helpful person. However, he experienced problems with his businesses. He turned to drink. His drinking spiralled and he became an alcoholic.
“His personality changed, and he became aggressive and unpredictable. He took his violence and bad temper out on his wife and family and no longer worked at the shop or lived with his family.”
This also led to Mathiyadaranam being handed restraining orders banning him from contacting Nilani and their eldest daughter, aged 17, in October 2024 as a result of “violence and a course of harassment” committed earlier the same year. Ms Darlow added: “On or about the 7th of June 2025, Nilani’s second daughter had her first menstrual period.
“The family had a small celebration at home to celebrate that milestone. The defendant was not invited to or informed about the event. But, in accordance with culture and tradition, the family would then expect to have a larger celebration about a month later, to which more people would be invited.
“The defendant was not invited to this event. Indeed, he could not be invited due to the restraining orders. The only relative from his side of the family who was invited was his brother. It appears, in due course, that the defendant found out about these events and became extremely angry.”
On the day of the fatal stabbing, Mathiyadaranam was captured on CCTV boarding a bus in Birkenhead shortly after midday and travelling to the Bootle area. He was then seen visiting Strand Shopping Centre, purchasing a roll of duct tape from Poundland before making his way to the nearby Asda supermarket.
There, Mathiyadaranam was said to have “donned a basic disguise” and entered the store, with Ms Darlow telling the jury: “You will see that he has now put on a jacket and a surgical face mask, which he has down on his face when he walks into the store. But, when he goes to the knife aisle, the defendant has deliberately pulled the mask up.
“We say that he knows he is about to buy the murder weapon and he is taking precautions, realising the risk his actions may be caught on CCTV, to conceal his identity. You will see the defendant examining a selection of knives before he settles upon a block of knives. Within a few hours of this image being captured, the defendant uses a large knife from this block, the prosecution say, to murder his wife.
“There in Asda, as we can see, with the mask pulled up, he buys a box of five knives, packaged in a plastic holder. You will see the defendant holding those knives. He also buys cans of pre-mixed alcohol. The knives were bought at 1.40pm, and you can see that the defendant paid in cash.
“The defendant leaves the store and opens up the box of knives. He apparently puts the knives into the JD Sports bags, but he dumps the packaging and the box in undergrowth.”
Mathiyadaranam, who is being assisted by an interpreter during the trial, was seen sitting outside the job centre on Stanley Road before dropping out of the view of CCTV cameras for around two-and-a-half hours. However, shortly before 4.30pm, he then “confronted” his eldest daughter at Pound Plus in Kirkdale.
Ms Darlow said of this incident: “Nilani’s elder daughter is out and about, and she meets up with a friend and begins what should have been a very happy event. She went to a shop called Pound Plus. The purpose was to pick out flowers for the family celebration of her younger sister’s first period.
“The defendant, as you know, had not been invited to the ceremony for which she was buying the flowers, because he was no longer on speaking terms with his family and there were restraining orders in place. She tried to speak to her mother on the phone to ask her about the flowers for her sister’s ceremony. While she was trying to speak to her mum, the defendant appeared and confronted her.
“You can see the defendant standing next to her. He has his arm over or on her, and he confronts her and asks her about her sister’s coming of age and the forthcoming ceremony. She thought that he was drunk. She told the defendant that he should not be there, that the family were not on speaking terms with him and he had not done what the family had asked him to do, which was to go into rehabilitation.
“The defendant, for his part, told her that he had just been to see a lawyer. She did not want to be near her father, because he was known to be aggressive. She spoke to her mother, and Nilani told her get a taxi home. She instead went to a friend’s house and asked her friend’s dad if he could give her a lift back home.”
Mathiyadaranam was said to have boarded another bus to take him to the area of Nilani’s workplace, with Ms Darlow saying: “He takes the bus up Stanley Road. The bus pulls in at the stop outside Low Cost Food and Wine at 4.37pm.
“The defendant does not get off at that bus stop. What he does, the prosecution say quite deliberately, is he gets off at the next bus stop, because what he wants to do, and the prosecution say that this is a theme, is to avoid giving his wife notice of his arrival. He does not want to give her any chance to flee or protect herself.
“When he gets off the bus, he walks towards King’s Gardens. He goes into the gardens through a gap in the hedge at 4.42pm. Some 17 minutes later, just before five o’clock, he reappears and, by now, he has got the hood of his coat pulled up and he is wearing a surgical mask.”
Of his entry into the park, Ms Darlow added: “He has got the JD Sports bag out, the hood of his jacket is down. He is not wearing his mask. But, when he comes out at 4.59pm, the prosecution say that he has got himself ready for the murder.
“He has pulled his hood up. He is wearing a jacket, despite the heat of this midsummer day. He has got the bag concealed underneath his jacket. He walks down the stairs and sits on the wall.
“You can see that the defendant has deliberately stationed himself diagonally opposite the store where his wife was working. He sits on the wall, adjusting his coat, and looks in the direction of Low Cost Food and Wine for just under three minutes.
“In due course, members of the jury, you might wish to ask yourself why he waits for those three minutes. The prosecution suggest that he is waiting until the shop is empty of customers and his wife is alone and utterly defenceless.”
At around 5pm, CCTV footage captured Mathiyadaranam crossing the road towards the shop and briefly “lurking” outside on the pavement. With Nilani having apparently been alerted to his presence on the store’s CCTV cameras, she was seen taking hold of her mobile phone and leaving the counter in order to open a door which had been opened by her ex-husband as he entered after the “last customer” had left.
Mathiyadaranam then pulled out a knife which had been “deliberately concealed in his coat”, with a tussle ensuing when Nilani returned to the till area. Ms Darlow added: “He has got hold of her by the neck. He is dragging her forward. Nilani can be seen trying to pull away from the defendant.
“The defendant drags Nilani by the neck, holding the knife and using it to repeatedly stab Nilani. She is pushed into the lottery display, causing it to topple. The defendant uses his leg to hook around Nilani’s leg and deliberately unbalance her. She is pulling frantically at the handle of the door to get out, but, after multiple stabs, collapses to the floor.
“You have no doubt seen the blood spattering at the defendant’s feet. The defendant deliberately continues the horrific violence of the attack. You may have noticed that he lifts up her shirt at one stage of the attack, the prosecution deliberately so he can make sure that the knife is penetrating into her vital organs. He appears to dig the knife even deeper into her torso, even when the knife has already penetrated her.
“We say it is a slow, purposeful, deliberate attack, designed to give Miss Nilani no chance at all of survival. What it is not is frenzied or out of control. It is deliberate. He only stops when she is motionless and so badly injured that there can be no doubt she is at death’s door. Once that happens, he steps back and throws down the knife.”
With the couple’s 17-year-old daughter having been present in the flat above the shop, where she lived with her mum and younger sisters, at the time, Ms Darlow continued: “The upstairs flat is equipped with CCTV which shows what is happening in the store. She looked at the camera and saw someone lying on the floor of the shop.
“Initially her mind, presumably, cannot compute what is happening. She thought that it was a member of the public who was, perhaps, passed out, and her mother would help this person. So, she goes downstairs to help her mother.
“When she makes it downstairs she discovers, and you can only imagine what she went through when she did so, that the person on the floor is her mother, and she cannot open the door to help her mother because her mother’s collapsed body is blocking the door. She found the defendant next to her mother on the floor, speaking to her. She tries to flee and goes to the chicken shop next door, calls 999 and calls as many people as possible to help.”
A healthcare assistant, Jodie Reardon, who was passing the scene while taking the bus to work then “became aware of the commotion outside the shop and people screaming for help”. She approached the scene and applied pressure to Nilani’s wounds, having found her “unconscious, bleeding heavily but still breathing very slowly”.
Ms Reardon was also able to kick the knife underneath an freezer containing ice creams for sale in order “to stop it being used further”. She meanwhile recalled that Mathiyadaranam was “looking as if nothing happened and staring”, reporting that, when she cut her clothing away in order to administer medical aid, he “shook his head, as if saying ‘don’t be doing that'”.
Another witness, Jane Arhad, saw with an “expressionless look on his face, someone who was unaffected by the scene in front of him”. Cameras inside the store also captured him “swigging from a bottle” of Whyte and Mackay whisky before police arrived and arrested him.
Mathiyadaranam was said to have told officers “I did this” at this stage, adding that he was “very upset as he had not seen his daughters for the last 18 months”. He went on to “complain that the handcuffs were too tight for him” and said: “I’m not running, don’t worry.”
Having been taken into custody at St Anne Street Police Station, Mathiyadaranam was described as “sweating profusely”, with PCs “noticing a strong chemical smell”. He was said to have been “unsteady on his feet and appearing short of breath”, having also “lost control of his bowels”.
Mathiyadaranam went on to report that he had drunk vodka and “taken poison”, although he “said he did not know what he had taken”. He was taken to the Royal Liverpool Hospital after his condition deteriorated further, having “complained of stomach pains” and stated he “had been drinking alcohol all day”.
With doctors suspecting he had ingested a pesticide, shards of a broken brown glass bottle were discovered near to the doorway of Low Cost Food and Wine. These largely contained “foreign writing”, although the word “poison” had been written in English on its side.
Following his discharge from hospital, Mathiyadaranam made no comment when interviewed by detectives on July 16. However, when examined by a consultant forensic psychiatrist, instructed by his defence team in order to assess his fitness to plead, during August and September 2025, he told the doctor that he had “become very upset” during a visit to Sri Lanka during June 2025, when he learned of his second daughter “attaining maturity” via a friend.
Mathiyadaranam was also said to have reported during these consultations that he was “angry he had not been invited to this event” and bought a pesticide, which a relative of his had previously used to take his own life, while in his home country. He went on to tell the psychiatrist he “felt an impulsive desire to end his own life, but decided his wife had made everyone else suffer so she should die also”.
While he had apparently “briefly changed his mind”, Mathiyadaranam then reported that he had decided to kill Nilani after seeing his daughter outside Pound Plus, an event which left him believing “his wife must have turned her against him”. During these interviews, he also stated he had worn a face mask as he “did not want his wife to press the panic alarm” and told her “he was going to kill her then kill himself” after entering the store.
However, Mathiyadaranam recalled she “asked him not to kill himself and orphan the children”, although he “consumed the pesticide and awaited his arrest” after the stabbing. He next recalled “waking in hospital 20 days later, having been in a coma”.
Attempts at resuscitation were made at the scene following the stabbing, but Nilani was subsequently pronounced dead in hospital at 5.53pm. A post-mortem investigation later found she had suffered 14 stab wounds and four slash wounds to her chest, back, head, neck, abdomen, groin, left arm and hand, some of which pierced her left lung, heart, skull and spine.
Ms Darlow added at the conclusion of the prosecution’s opening: “It is understood that the defendant accepts killing Nilani but asserts that, because he was drunk at the time, he did not have intention to kill her or cause her really serious harm. As matter of law, a person who forms the intention to kill or cause serious harm which they would not have formed if sober is still guilty of the offence. The drunken intention is still, in law, intention.
“The case for the prosecution is that the defendant intended to kill Nilani. This was a pre-meditated, deliberate attack, in which the defendant knew exactly what he was doing. He had selected and bought the knife in advance.
“He had travelled deliberately to Nilani’s workplace, deliberately sought to disguise himself to stop her hitting the panic alarm, deliberately, the prosecution suggest, waited until she was alone and helpless in the shop, then stabbed and stabbed and stabbed her until she was at death’s door. The killing itself, as you have seen on the CCTV, was slow, deliberate and involved not only stabbing Nilani multiple times but deliberately aiming where the defendant knew would be the most vulnerable parts of the human body, in particular the left side of the chest and the head.
“The prosecution suggest that the CCTV shows he carried on stabbing Nilani until there could be no doubt that she was dead. That killing, we suggest, was a culmination of earlier violence and harassment of Nilani and her family, and a calculated response to a blow to his own ego when he was excluded, quite rightly, from the celebrations of his second daughter’s coming of age.”