Man who killed pregnant ex-wife with crossbow in 'brutal and evil' revenge attack jailed for minimum of 33 years
A man who shot dead his pregnant ex-wife with a crossbow in a "brutal and evil" revenge attack has been jailed for a minimum term of 33 years.
Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo, 51, broke into the home of Sana Muhammad and fired an arrow into her in the stomach as she try to flee.
Mrs Muhammad, 35, suffered catastrophic internal injuries and died. Her unborn son miraculously survived after being delivered by Caesarean section.
Unmathallegadoo was found guilty last week at the Old Bailey after four hours of deliberations, the jury rejecting the defendant's claim it was an accident.
On Friday, Judge Mark Lucraft QC sentenced him to life with a minimum term of 33 years at the Old Bailey.
He described the killing of Mrs Muhammad as a "brutal and evil attack", saying if it was not for the presence of her children he would have shot her new husband Imtiaz too.
He told the defendant: "You have carefully planned this attack. You had two loaded crossbows and I'm entirely satisfied you intended an attack on Sana and then on Imtiaz.
"One can only assume that you were jealous of their life together and the fact that they had formed a loving bond between themselves and with your children."
During the proceedings, the court had heard how Mrs Muhammad, formerly known as Devi Unmathallegadoo, had an arranged marriage to the defendant, who was 30 at the time, in Mauritius on her 16th birthday.
Their unhappy relationship ended in 2012 after an incident in which she jumped out of an upstairs window and broke her ankle. She had told police the defendant had stared at her as he sharpened knives in the garden.
He was cleared of attacking her in 2013 and acquitted on the judge’s direction of a charge of attempted strangulation under the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861.
Mrs Muhammad successfully filed for an emergency non-molestation order which barred the defendant from coming within 100 metres of the family home in Ilford, east London.
Following her divorce, she married builder Imtiaz Muhammad and changed her name from Devi Unmathallegadooto to Sana Muhammad.
On the morning of November 12 2018, he took up position in the garden shed armed with two crossbows, bolts, a knife, duct tape, cable ties and a hammer.
He was disturbed by Mr Muhammad who had gone into the garden to store an empty box. The defendant ran inside the house and shot his ex-wife with an 18-inch arrow as she fled upstairs.
The defendant made no reaction as he was led away from the dock.
- Mrs Muhammad's widower pays tribute to "soul mate".
Earlier, Mrs Muhammad's widower, Imtiaz described his "soul mate" as his "best friend and "my everything".
He said the couple were living "a happy life" and her murder had torn the family apart.
"Ram has finished everything. We all feel lost now. The kids are missing their mum too much," he said.
He said their baby son was "struggling", saying: "When I see him I feel very sorry for him because he has no mother and he has never seen a mother's love and he never will."
Mrs Muhammad's mother, Ellemah Sutharamandoo, said she had always treated I always treated Unmathallegadoo like a son.
"It brings me so much pain to know that he could be capable of something so hateful and so calculated. I cannot forgive him," she said.