‘Vicarage Murder’ plot for Hollywood
View(s):By Susitha R. Fernando
A sensational story of the fall from grace of a revered priest leading to gruesome murdere, romance, intrigue and poison…what else could a thrilling story have for a super hit for the world’s biggest cinema industry.
Well-known as ‘Vicarage Murder’ the tragic story of Father Matthew Pieris is to be made into an international movie as ‘According To Matthew’.
An ACE FILMS Hollywood production, the film would have a double importance to Sri Lanka as two internationally acclaimed Sri Lankan stars; popular Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez and world renowned entertainer Alston Koch have been short listed to play the leads as Dalreen Ingram and Fr. Mathew in addition it being a Sri Lankan plot.
The story of the exorcist priest who planned and executed the murders of his own wife and the husband of his mistress, for the ‘love’, became one of the most sensational cases in the judicial history of the country.
The double murders in Kynsey Road mission house hit the headlines in the 1980s. Convicted for murder of his wife and his secretary and lover, Ms. Dalreen Ingram’s husband Russel in 1984, Fr. Pieris was sentenced to death but commuted to life imprisonment and qualified for a general amnesty in 1997. The priest’s conviction was also confirmed by the Court of Appeal and then by the Supreme Court.
Ordained in England in 1950s as an priest of the Church of Sri Lanka, belonging to the Anglican Christian Fellowship, Rev. Peiris at the relevant time was the Vicar of Saint Paul’s Church Colombo. His wife Mrs. Eunice Peiris who was about 59 years old at the time of her death lived with him in the Vicarage. At the time of the incident, they had three grown-up children all living in England.
The Ingram couple were regular visitors to the Vicarage from 1976 and Fr. Mathew Peiris was known as an exorcist and conducted exorcism ceremonies at his Church on Thursdays which the Ingrams attended. At this time Russel has lost his job and Dalrene, a typist was also unemployed. They had three small children. Fr. Peiris employed Dalrene as his secretary and found employment for Russel at Lake House.
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