Death for priest and lover

Press, 18 February 1984, Page 7

Death for priest and lover

NZPA-Reuter Colombo An Anglican priest, the Rev. Mathew Peiris, and his secretary, Dalrene Ingram, have been sentenced to death by Sri Lanka’s High Court for the murder of their spouses. After a 165-day trial, the three-judge court said that a prosecution charge that there had been sexual intimacy between Peiris, aged 65, and Ingram, aged 37, had been proved. The court said the couple killed the priest’s wife, Eunice Peiris, and Ingram’s husband, Russel Ingram, by forcing them to take an anti-diabetic drug. Russel Ingram died in August, 1978, and Eunice

Peiris the next March. Both had been unconscious for one to IVz months before dying. Lawyers for the defence said they would appeal against the sentence. Official sources said no executions have taken place in Sri Lanka for seven years. All death sentences had been reduced to life imprisonment under presidential amnesties. The two accused were also found guilty on three other charges of abetting the’ murder of their spouses. Peiris, wearing robes, and Ingram, in a white sari, heard the sentence from the dock. Peiris did not display emotion but Ingram forced

back tears. Asked by the chairman of the trial, Tissa Dias Bandaranayake, if they had anything to say before the death sentence was passed, Peiris said, “I would like to say what I pleaded earlier — that I am not guilty. I am requesting my counsel to make an appeal.” Ingram said, “I am innocent.”

They both thanked their lawyers. They had been in custody since the trial began in March last year. They were taken to prison after the sentences.

A son and daughter of the Peiris couple, both living in London, were among 68 wit-

nesses who gave evidence for the prosecution while three witnesses appeared for the defence. About 25 doctors gave evidence.

Peiris, ordained in 1954, was also known as an exorcist. He had worked in two churches in Britain in the 1950 s and was vicar of St Paul’s Church, Colombo, from 1967 until he was arrested three years ago.

Ingram and her husband lived for a short while at the vicarage as boarders, the court was told. As well as working as Peiris’s secretary, Ingram also assisted at exorcism ceremonies at the vicarage.