Domestic abuse survivor jailed for manslaughter

Tuesday 16th April 2019 08:33 EDT
 
 

Packiam Ramanathan, a 73-year-old woman went into a trance when she disabled her 76-year-old husband Kanagusabi Ramanathan, as he lay in his bed, the Old Bailey heard. She denied murder however, she pleaded guilty of manslaughter.

Packiam used a wooden pole to beat her husband to death after facing years of abuse in her 35 years of marriage and has been jailed for two years and four months by Judge Anuja Dhir QC.

Packiam was in an arranged marriage with her “abusive husband” since 1983 after fleeing Sri Lanka during the civil war. Having fled from there, they had moved to Germany and subsequently to London, heard the Old Bailey. After hearing the case, the Judge was “satisfied” that from the very outset of that marriage until about 2007 Packiam was “abused physically, mentally and sexually”. But, the Old Bailey heard that the false allegations of infidetility, the foul language as well as the coercive and controlling behaviour continued. However, on September 21, last year paramedics found former shopkeeper and husband Ramanathan dead in his bedroom in Newham, east London, after the defendant told her neighbour she had hit him. A blood-stained wooden stick was found in a cupboard in the hall of the couple's flat.

According to Prosecutor Sally O'Neill QC there had been arguments about money and the defendant Packiam had become "very angry" at finding out her husband had written to Sri Lankan police accusing her brother of fraud and theft.

She said- “There is no dispute that the person who used that stick to cause those injuries which killed him was his wife and the prosecution case is that there also can be no doubt that she did so intending, at the least, to cause him really serious harm and that he was unlawfully killed as a result.”

But in her evidence, Ramanathan spoke about the years of bullying and abusive behaviour by her husband. He repeatedly accused her of having an affair with the fishmonger, the court heard.

Recalling the killing, Ramanathan told the jurors- "It was like I was in a trance. I hit him. I do not know. I did not know what I was doing. I remember him saying, 'Don't hit me'.

"I lost control at that time. I did not plan anything. I don't know how I did it. For me I still feel like somebody else did it."

Stephen Kamlish QC, defending, suggested that if Ramanathan had wanted to kill her diabetic husband she could have simply given him a bigger dose of insulin and "no-one would have known".

Kamlish urged jurors to acquit her of murder, saying- “After the hell of 36 years of abuse, you can show what you think of this prosecution and do the right thing by coming to a very fast verdict.”

During the sentencing hearing, Anuja Dhir QC jailed her for two years and four months over the incident but with time served on remand she will likely be freed in upcoming months and the jury deliberated for only half an hour to find Ramanathan not guilt of murder.

Packiam's story is similar to the domestic abuse story of Kiranjit Ahluwalia in 1989 when she had set her husband on fire. Her case was later taken up by Southall Black Sisters and through their legal aid and campaigns, her appeal for a re-trial had been accepted. She was later sentenced to three years and four months of prison time, the amount she had served earlier and was released immediately.


comments powered by Disqus



to the free, weekly Asian Voice email newsletter