A 32 year-old man, who was arrested last evening by the Criminal Investigations Department in Bemmulla, Gampaha had confessed to the rape and murder of five year old Seya Sadewmini, the Police said.
Police spokesman SSP Priyantha Jayakody said that the suspect was arrested while hiding in a jungle in Bemmulla.
The suspect had confessed to the rape and murder of the girl following interrogation by the Criminal Investigations Department.
Police said that the suspect is a bachelor and lives in close vicinity to the house of the murdered child.
The Police earlier arrested two suspects including a 17 year old schoolboy. The arrest of the school boy drew protest against the Police action as the boy had been identified. The mother of the school boy had corroborated that he was at home on the fateful day of the murder.
The two suspects including the schoolboy arrested previously, have been remanded till the 28th of this month.
According to police sources, the suspect, in the Seya rape-murder case had made a lengthy confession to the CID.
In it, he had said, “As I was passing by the house of the child whom I abducted, I saw a light coming from a room. The window was opened and I saw three children were sleeping in one bed and a woman in the other.
"I have a habit of secretly watching women sleeping and bathing. I also like children. As I was looking through the window, I saw one beautiful girl asleep. I tried the front door handle to enter because I couldn’t jump through the window. The door was unlocked and I entered the room discreetly.
I carried the child out of the house through the front door as I feared she would wake up. Her mother was fast asleep and didn’t wake up.
The child remained fast asleep as I carried her out on my shoulder.”
In the confession, he had detailed, step by step, to the CID officers how he had raped and killed the little girl, a senior police officer said.
It had been revealed that the suspect had hidden the dead body of the child near a river bank and had gone to his sister’s home in Ingammaruwa.
A brother of the suspect had seen him wearing clothes with bloodstains and the suspect had told his brother, with threats, not to reveal anything.
Police said the suspect had spent most of his life in the wilderness; and he had fled to the Bemmulla area and stayed in the wilds as well as in a cemetery for 12 days after committing the crime.
The 32 year-old suspect, Dunesh Priyashantha alias ‘Kondaya’ had described, in detail, the sexual abuse of five-year-old girl child Seya Sadewmi in his confession to the CID. However, it will not be published here due to the manner in which the crime had been committed. The confession cannot be revealed in a civilized society.
The mother of the suspect arrested in connection with the death of Seya, speaking to the media, said that her husband had been convicted of theft and jailed and died in prison. She had one daughter and three sons.
She had never being to school. Her second son was taken into custody by police on charges of killing a small child. My third son "Kondaya" who was arrested now as the suspect was a school dropout. He used to wander here and there and spend most of his time in jungles.
“I am aware that this son was in the habit of lurking in places where women bathe. He was in the habit of stealing women’s undergarments. Villagers come and complain to me about him. On occasions he had been beaten up by villagers. He had also stolen pots of rice from houses. People had warned him, but to no avail. He is very obstinate. He hates to brush his teeth or wash his face or bathe, instead he prefers to get into streams and catch fish and either eat them raw or cook them over an open fire and eat them.”