A 51-year-old man has been found guilty of shooting his heavily pregnant ex-wife dead with a crossbow.

Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo killed 35-year-old Sana Muhammad at her home on the morning of 12 November 2018.

The defendant had burst into the victim’s home and fired an arrow into her stomach as she fled upstairs. The mother of five suffered catastrophic internal injuries and died while her unborn son was delivered by caesarean section and survived.

Armed with two crossbows, bolts, a knife, duct tape, cable ties and a hammer, Unmathallegadoo took up position in the garden shed. He was discovered by the victim’s husband, who called for his wife to run as he was chased into the house.

The court had heard how Muhammad had an arranged marriage on her 16th birthday to the defendant, who was 30 at the time, in Mauritius.

Their relationship ended in 2012 following an incident in which Muhammad jumped out of an upstairs window and broke her ankle. She had told police that Unmathallegadoo had stared at her as he sharpened knives in the garden.

In 2013, Unmathallegadoo was cleared of attacking Muhammad and acquitted on the judge’s direction of a charge of attempted strangulation under the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861.

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. The order forbade Unmathallegadoo from contacting his ex-wife directly and he was not to threaten or intimidate her or their three children. The order was still in place at the time of killing.

Muhammad went on to marry the builder Imtiaz Muhammad and changed her name from Devi to Sana. The couple had two children and were awaiting the arrival of their third last autumn.

Unmathallegadoo started to plot his revenge following the divorce, the Old Bailey was told. He bought two crossbows online for about £250 each, which were discovered stashed near his ex-wife’s home by a neighbour in March 2018. Unmathallegadoo replaced the crossbows and organised surveillance on the house in Applegarth Drive.

Giving evidence from behind a screen, Muhammad’s widower told jurors he thought he was “dreaming” when his wife’s ex-husband emerged armed with two loaded crossbows.

He told jurors: “When she got an arrow she just screamed. I was thinking, ‘What is happening?’. I was screaming for her.

“Then from there, because he had a second crossbow on his shoulder, I was thinking he’s used one and now the second one might be for me.”

As Unmathallegadoo‘s oldest children rushed in to disarm him, the defendant said: “It would have been easier if you guys weren’t here, like I would have done it.”

Unmathallegadoo had told the police he was aiming for Imtiaz but his former wife got in the way. Giving evidence, he claimed the crossbow went off by accident and he bought the weapons to go hunting in Mauritius with his brother.

The defendant told the Old Bailey he wanted to talk to Muhammad about his concerns that his daughter was being raised as a Muslim. But the prosecution argued Unmathallegadoo had planned to restrain the couple and their children and at least kill the two adults and the unborn child.

The jury in Unmathallegadoo‘s first trial was discharged after a juror raised an issue of psychiatric illness against the judge’s direction not to speculate and despite no evidence being heard about his mental state.