The daughter of a woman accused of the murder of her husband told a court how 'bolted locks' were put on bedroom doors after her mother previously came looking for her father with a knife in the night.

Eastern Daily Press: 67-year-old Rajasingam Kumarathas lived on Burdock Close, Wymondham, with his wife Jeyamalar Kumarathas. Photo: Submitted67-year-old Rajasingam Kumarathas lived on Burdock Close, Wymondham, with his wife Jeyamalar Kumarathas. Photo: Submitted (Image: Archant)

Jeyamalar Kumarathas, 55, of Burdock Close in Wymondham, has gone on trial at Norwich Crown Court accused of the murder of her husband.

Kumarathas Rajasingam, 57, died in hospital on March 17 after being stabbed at their Wymondham home the previous day.

The jury of eight men and four women heard police interviews of the couple's daughter Elaxana, who described how things had got "pretty wild" between her parents after the death of her mother's friend in Sri Lanka.

During interview she told officers their relationship had been "rocky".

Eastern Daily Press: 67-year-old Rajasingam Kumarathas was stabbed to death on Burdock Close, Wymondham, Saturday night. Photo: Submitted67-year-old Rajasingam Kumarathas was stabbed to death on Burdock Close, Wymondham, Saturday night. Photo: Submitted (Image: Archant)

She said: "It was quite clear they had old problems to work out. They weren't exactly a happy couple."

She said her father would sometimes stay out all night and not come home until 6am.

Elaxana said when her mum got drunk she made "excuses" to start raising her voice and having an argument.

Her mother's problems with alcohol stemmed from the death of a friend back in Sri Lanka in 2008, the daughter said, adding that her mother "took it really hard", becoming a "completely changed person".

She said: "She was never really the same after that. She went for a month just staring at the walls without eating or anything like that."

She said her mother put pictures of her friend "all around the house". She described how it was "just out of control" and her father got rid of all the pictures.

Elaxana said it was then that her mother started calling her dad a "womaniser" and accused him of having "affairs with all these women".

She said it just "spiralled out of control" after that, with her mother becoming obsessed with the idea he was having an affair.

She displayed "obsessive behaviour" and would stop him talking to other people, his friends and other women, she said.

Officers were told that Kumarathas accused members of the family, including sisters and in-laws, of "having an affair with my dad".

In fact "at one point she accused me of having an affair with my own dad".

Elaxana said she also started drinking, which would go on for "hours, for days".

She said her dad "tried to blank her out" but the defendant "really pushed all of our buttons".

She said her father had been previously stabbed by her mother in 2017/18, but that her mother had "cleaned him up".

Elaxana had asked if he was going to go to the police but he did not want to.

He also did not get any medical assistance for his wounds.

She described how her "mother was always the problem" and how "it got too much for all of us" and that on one occasion her father hit her.

She said: "My dad couldn't take any more and yes he did raise his hands and hit her but it was just that one time."

She said her mother had picked up knives at home in the past and described how she had managed to get it off her previously.

She said: "I did so well until [the night the victim was stabbed]."

She said the defendant, who slept on the sofa, had previously gone upstairs to her husband, who slept in a bedroom with her brother, with a knife.

She said her father would "lash out" and "push her away down the stairs".

He would tell her to go away and not "cause drama".

She said she got her dad to put "bolted locks" on the bedroom door after these incidents.

She also described how on other occasions there were a "few times" her brother removed a knife from where their mother was sleeping and "put it back in the kitchen drawer".

The court has heard how on the night of the attack the defendant emerged from the kitchen having picked up a knife and "stabbed her husband of 30 years".

Christopher Paxton, prosecuting, said: "She stabbed him once in the back and then again in the stomach."

Elaxana, then 26, who had been at their home on the night, grabbed the knife from her mother and brought the attack to an end before using her father's phone to call the police.

Kumarathas denies murder.

The trial continues.