General

A 37-year-old Sri Lankan man has been given a life sentence by a UK court after he stabbed his estranged wife to death in a car park after she began a relationship with a work colleague. Niwunhellage Dona Nirodha Kalapni Niwunhella, known as Nirodha, 32, died at the scene at South Morgan Place in Riverside, Cardiff, on 21 August 2025. Thisara Weragalage, from Pentwyn, who had been separated from her for months, previously denied murder, but at a hearing at Newport Crown Court in January he pleaded guilty. Sentencing Weragalage at Cardiff Crown Court, Judge Daniel Williams said his “brutal selfishness” had cut Nirodha’s life short. The court heard the couple had been separated for months, but on the morning of the attack Weragalage went to the residential car park knowing Nirodha would be there. She was attacked with a 15cm kitchen knife, suffering catastrophic injuries to her face, neck, chest, arm and leg and died at the scene, left between two parked cars. The attack was so ferocious that the handle broke off the knife used in the attack. Witnesses, including a man walking his dog, saw Weragalage leaving the scene at speed in his Ford Fiesta, and they raised the alarm when they then found Nirodha lying motionless with horrific injuries nearby. A short time later, Weragalage was spotted by a lorry driver on a pavement in the Tremorfa area of Cardiff in an agitated state and he threw himself in front of the rear wheels of the vehicle.