A Rare Quashing of a Conviction for Murder by the Privy Council in 1936
This case originated in the 1930s. It is included here 1) because I first heard about it in the mid 1960s at Welikade Prison on the manner in which the Privy Council looked at some cases referred to it from Ceylon. The judgment was not available then, and became available long afterwards with the advent of the Internet 2) because it was the first case of murder using chloroform in Ceylon and has some similarity to the Kularatne case of the 1960s, where arsenic was used for the first time. and both accused were acquitted in appeal. A Rare Quashing of a Conviction for Murder by the Privy Council in 1936 The case in which Stephen Christopher Seneviratne , a Cambridge graduate & a non practicing barrister was named as the suspect in the murder of his wife, Lilian Rosalin de Alwis , daughter of Daniel Albert de Alwis and Grace Rosalin Dias Bandaranaike , & sister of Leo de Alwis , a son-in-law of Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranaike, , attracted much attention in 1933, due...