Stephen Seneviratne and his wife Lillian Rosaline Seneviratne were married in 1923. Stephen Senaviratne is a Sri Lankan lawyer who graduated from Cambridge University and comes from a wealthy family. Both of them were sister-in-law and both of them were S.W.R.D., a powerful politician in Sri Lanka. They were close relatives of Mr. Bandaranaike. After marriage, both of them have settled in the "white house" located at Ward Place, Colombo 7. 
 
They had a 9-year-old child named Terence Senaviratne. And one child died immediately after birth. Over time, reasons have arisen that lead to a rift between the two. Stephen has sold the white house he inherited and also sold a dowry land in Wellawatta area and bought a farmland in Nawala area. The reason for that is that he was a person who loved farming and rearing animals. 
 

 With the sale of the white house, the fights increased. The reason for this is that it was sold against the reluctance of his wife. After living in a rented house for a short time, in 1933 he settled in Duff House on Bagathale Road. The Duff House bungalow was a single storey house with front, rear and east side verandahs. In this house lived Mrs. Seneviratne, child Terence, Stephen Seneviratne and their servants. Mrs. Senaviratne sleeps in a separate room with her maid Alpina and the child Terence sleeps in the room next to the mother's room with his maid/nurse Mabel Joseph and these two rooms share the same bathroom. Both rooms are open to each other. Mr. Stephen lived alone in a room at the back of the bungalow. Another reason for the wives to fight was about an affair that Stephen allegedly had with a woman named Jessie who was working at home. The woman was later fired by Mrs. Seneviratne, but Stephen employed her again at the estate in Nawala. Another reason was that Stephen did not consider Mrs. Senaviratne and always tried to separate from her without any problem.
 
 All these facts are confirmed by the letters written by Ms. Senaviratne to Stephen, which appeared at the trial. She had a habit of writing her displeasures to her master in letters and giving them to him. In those letters, she often threatened to commit suicide. However, no evidence has been revealed in this case that Stephen has tortured his wife Mrs. Seneviratne or assaulted or insulted her in a threatening manner. Child Terence was close to his father. The reason is that Mrs. Senaviratne used to beat him. It appears that she somehow passed out under a lot of pressure due to problems in her family life. She has also worked to take that pressure off Terence. Mrs. Seneviratne also resented Stephen and Terence going to Wayangoda to visit Frances Seneviratne, Stephen's sister. She is stubborn enough to go to her room and close the door when she has a fight with her master. Two and a half months before the death, Stephen had bought a bottle of chloroform to perform surgery on a cow's leg in his garden, but had not used it. Later, he brought it to the bungalow and gave it to his wife Mrs. Senaviratne. About six weeks before her death, she told a stranger named Charles Seneviratne that she was thinking of committing suicide by using chloroform. The night before Mrs. Seneviratne died, Mr. and Mrs. Cerem came home and had a conversation. That night, Mr. Stephen had gone to his sister Francine Seneviratne's house with Terence's child and Mrs. Seneviratne became angry with her husband. Anyway, on this night she went to taunt with her servant Alpina. As the weather was rainy that night, Alpina was asked to wake up and close the window. She has said in her testimony that Alpina woke up one more time and drank water and went back to sleep and then Alpina woke up at around 6:00 am and went to the bathroom and came back to the room. When Mrs. Seneviratne was sleeping on the other side, she opened the door of the room and went to the kitchen to cook breakfast. . 15 to 20 minutes later, Silas, a 15-year-old servant and driver, Perera, came and told Alpina that Mrs. Seneviratne was looking for her. Later, when she went to the room and looked, she saw Mrs. Seneviratne unconscious across the bed with her head against the wall and her legs falling down from the bed. And when she came to the room, she saw Stephen, the dead woman's husband, coming from Terence's room. She further testified that Alpina was suffocated by a poisonous substance or an oil-like substance. Later, Steven and Maya tried to wake Mrs. Seneviratne by hitting her with a book, trying to give her brandy and hot water and giving her artificial respiration, but to no avail. 
 
According to the order of Mr. Stephen, the employee named Simon went with the driver Perera to fetch Mrs. Bandaranaike and Dr. Paul and everyone arrived around 7.30.
Mabel Joseph, his nurse, who was sleeping with Terence, also said in her testimony that she woke up at around 6.00 am and Mrs. Seneviratne was sleeping in bed with her hands on her head and then she left to go to church at around 6.30 am. According to Silas' testimony, he said that he woke up at about 6:00 a.m. and found Mr. Stephen and his servant, Martine, on the verandah area behind the bungalow, feeding the birds. He further said that he did not see Mr. Stephen going to Mrs. Senaviratne's room and there was no space for him to go to the room without catching his eye. Martin has confirmed this. Stephen Seneviratne has said that he heard the noise from the direction of Terence's room and first entered his room and then entered his wife's room. According to Dr. Paul's testimony, he arrived at the scene at about 7:30 a.m. and Stephen had left the room at that time. He has concluded that Mrs. Senaviratne died at around 6.30 am and the cause of death was overdose of aspirin pills. The reason for that is after finding a bottle of aspirin on her desk at the moment. When he interrogated Stephen, he said that he had brought a bottle of aspirin because he had said that May had a headache the previous night. The doctor further observed that there should have been about 25 aspirin in that bottle, but at that moment there were about 9 aspirin. It was further stated in the doctor's evidence that there were some bruising marks on the face and that these marks were caused by the brandy and hot water used. Dr. Paul's son, Dr. Milroy Paul, injected formalin to protect Mrs. Seneviratne's body from rotting after noon that day and buried the body on the 16th. But Alvis, one of Maya's brothers, complained that the death was suspicious and that her husband was responsible for the death, and accordingly, on November 7, the dead body was recovered and the autopsy was started. The post-mortem was conducted after the formalin-injected body had been buried underground for 24 days. In this case, several doctors have commented on this, but most of them were of the opinion that this death was due to Asphyxia due to lack of O2 in the breath or due to Syncope, which may have been due to chloroform, and some facial and hand injuries. That bruises or burn marks in the areas may be due to chloroform liquid. For that, chloroform has the ability to burn even without applying any force to the skin by pressing the handkerchief with force. But no medical evidence has revealed whether this was a suicide or a murder by Stephen or someone else using chloroform. Anyway, the Privy Council (at that time, a court in the 90s) has considered all the evidence and pointed out that there is a problem with the accuracy of the evidence given by individuals (many employees) and some strong evidence falls under "Hearsay Evidence" and such evidence and is not admissible without proof. (Hearsay Evidence is something heard or heard by another person that resonates with his five senses and is stated before a court of honor. ) If such a statement is issued, the person who made it should be called as evidence and confirm its accuracy. or such evidence falls under inadmissible evidence.
 
 (Inadmissible Evidence) “LORD ROCHE states that, Evidence of former statements by a witness cannot be given without previous cross-examination of the witness as to such statements. The prosecution is not bound to call witnesses regardless of considerations of number and of reliability.” "When any fact is especially within the knowledge of any person the burden of proving that fact is upon him." It has further been pointed out that there are conflicting comments in the medical evidence and as a result there is no clear evidence about the manner of death and whether the burns on her face were caused by an attempt to kill or whether she herself inhaled chloroform with a handkerchief or not. And since the jury had given this verdict on the failure of the honorable judge of the lower court to explain these facts to the jury, Stephen, or the accused appellant in this appeal, was unanimously acquitted of all charges by the Privy Council. Thus, a large number of mysterious deaths that have not been properly revealed due to the lack of evidence and contradictions can be seen in the judicial system of Sri Lanka.
 
 https://www.lawnet.gov.lk/.../040-NLR-NLR-V-38-THE-KING-v... #duffhouse #hearsay #evidence #suicide #murder #supremecourt #U D
 
LAW OF MURDER