Man pleads guilty to 2024 stabbing attack that killed 6 inside Ottawa home
Posted on: Nov 06, 2025 19:54 IST | Posted by: Cbc
A 20-year-old adult male has at present pleaded hangdog to murdering quaternity children, their overprotect, and a close family friend in a mass stabbing in Ottawa last year.
Febrio De Zoysa has also pleaded guilty to one count of attempted murder for his attack on the father of the family, Dhanushka Wickramasinghe, who was seriously injured.
At the time of the stabbings on March 6, 2024, De Zoysa was an international student living with the Wickramasinghes in their basement in Ottawa's Barrhaven suburb.
He was arrested at the scene without incident after first responders arrived and was charged with six counts of first-degree murder the following day.
De Zoysa stood with his lawyer Ewan Lyttle in Superior Court in Ottawa Thursday morning and pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder of the following victims:
The sentences for those murders are automatic: life in prison with no ability to apply for parole for 25 years.
For the remaining two victims, mother Darshani Ekanayake, 35; and their baby Kelly Wickramasinghe, just two months old, De Zoysa pleaded down to the lesser included offences of second-degree murder.
Pleading down is commonplace in plea bargains.
Those sentences will be partly automatic: second-degree murders result in life sentences as well, but the periods of parole ineligibilty will be up to Justice Kevin Phillips to decide after input from the Crown and defence.
The shocking incident — described by Ottawa's mayor as one of the most shocking acts of violence the capital has ever seen — generated headlines across Canada and gripped Sri Lankan media.
The Wickramasinghes were newcomers to Canada from Sri Lanka (except for the baby) and so was Amarakoon, who was working to support his family back home.
De Zoysa is a Sri Lankan national.
The court is now expected to hear what happened that night in Barrhaven and the events that led up to it, as well as any victim impact statements.
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