Colombo, June 27 – A British woman who has been left stranded in Sri Lanka after marrying a local before he was shot dead says he only wanted her money.
Diane De Zoysa, 59, says she ‘gave up everything’ to live with husband Priyanjana, 26, in Ahungalla, in the south west of the country – but believes he had a second wife that he kept secret from her.
She first met the hotel worker when she was on holiday in the country six years ago, before returning seven months later to marry him.
The former customer support worker at Edinburgh City Council – who says she gave her husband about £100,000 in total after selling her house in Scotland – now believes the marriage was ‘all about the money’.
Speaking to MailOnline, she said: ‘I should have realised it was just about the money. My friends thought that he was just marrying me for the money.
‘Once I came out here he wanted money all the time.’
Mrs De Zoysa revealed her family and friends were concerned about their relationship – but she wanted to ‘prove them wrong’.
She said: ‘All my friends didn’t think it was a good idea. But I really loved him and I thought he really loved me and I wanted to prove them wrong.
‘I’ve never loved anybody the way I loved him. He was always affectionate to me. He was desperate for me to move out here.’
Mrs De Zoysa says she still ‘think[s] about him every day’ after he was murdered last month at a friend’s house.
She says she believes her husband was shot dead by men trying to blackmail him for money.
‘From what I’ve been told he was at a friend’s house. Two men turned up on mopeds looking for him,’ she said. ‘They shot him three times, twice in the chest and once in the stomach.
‘His friends took him to hospital but he died straight away. A woman came round and told me he’s dead, he’s been shot.’
She continued: ‘His friend told me they were jealous because he was rich. They were jealous because he had a nice a house, a minibus and a tuk-tuk.
‘They blackmailed him. He did give them some money but they wanted more. Because they didn’t give him more, they shot him. They must have gone looking for him.’
However, she says she was ‘already unhappy’ before his death, explaining that he was never at home.
Mrs De Zoysa had originally moved to Sri Lanka in February 2015, before returning to Scotland in June, when her husband got a job in the country’s capital Colombo.
She explained that she decided to return to Ahungalla in September because she ‘really missed him’ and wanted to be back with her husband.
However, on returning, she was often left at home by herself – despite his family living next door – and was never allowed to go out on her own.
Explaining that this is still the case, she said: ‘I’m kind of a prisoner here. I’m not allowed to go out anywhere on my own.
‘My husband used to say there’s too many stray dogs, and too many people with mental problems.
‘I think maybe he had another wife. I think she was at the hospital and she was at the funeral.’
Mrs De Zoysa said her suspicions were first aroused before Christmas when she found a marriage certificate in Sinhalese with her husband’s signature on it. The document suggested that he was married to an 18-year-old woman.
‘I confronted him about it and he said it was his brother’s,’ she said. ‘I didn’t believe him.
‘He wasn’t coming home at night. I suspect that when he wasn’t coming home he was staying with the other woman’.
Mrs De Zoysa says she now ‘regrets’ her decision to move out to Sri Lanka.
‘I do regret coming back out here after what’s happened and how he treated me,’ she said. ‘I want go back to Scotland. My life now is so lonely.’
Despite admitting she has regrets, she recently posted a tribute on Facebook ahead of her husband’s birthday writing: ‘Happy Birthday for tomorrow my darling husband. I wish you were here so I could give you a big hug and lots of kisses.’
However, an earlier post in April revealed the loneliness she felt after moving to Sri Lanka.
Replying to a friend, she wrote: ‘Hi unfortunately it’s not how I imagined it would be. I am left alone all day and night. I hardly see my husband as he is always working. He is a taxi driver and this is a busy time for him.’
She added: ‘‘I am seriously thinking about coming home. If I do that then I have nowhere not (sic) live, no job and very little money. I don’t know what to do for the best.’
Mrs De Zoysa says she is currently unable to return to her native country due to her financial situation and believes that her husband’s family now want to keep the money she handed over.
She says she has been in touch with the British Consulate in Colombo and is attempting to establish her rights.
Two men are understood to have been arrested in connection with her husband’s death.
A Foreign and Commonwealth office spokesman said: ‘Our High Commission in Sri Lanka is providing assistance.’
