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Home / World

Tinder date killer Alexander Villaluna met wife and began abusing her in New Zealand

Kurt Bayer
By Kurt Bayer
South Island Head of News·NZ Herald·
22 Oct, 2017 11:36 PM4 mins to read

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Moment Alexander Villaluna is arrested in a Hornsby restaurant in Sydney March 2016 after stabbing Keith Collins who had been on a Tinder date with Villaluna's ex-wife Jovi Pilapil. Video / ABC

Alexander Villaluna always told his wife, Jovi Pilapil, that he would kill her if she met another man.

From the start, after meeting at nursing training in New Zealand, he mistreated her. He was "very possessive and jealous", according to court documents.

Living in Auckland and Upper Hutt, Pilapil had few friends and rarely went out. Villaluna would punch her, choke her.

Villaluna is escorted to a waiting prison services vehicle at the Supreme Court in Sydney. Photo / AAP
Villaluna is escorted to a waiting prison services vehicle at the Supreme Court in Sydney. Photo / AAP

Pilapil, who had three children from a former marriage, gave birth to a son fathered by Villaluna in 2011, a New South Wales Supreme Court decision says.

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She finally left him two years ago. By then, the Philippines-born couple were living in Sydney and she got a protection order to keep him away.

Villaluna took it badly. He quizzed Pilapil's teenage daughter and their son about "where she was and who she was with", the decision says.

The 45-year-old bought a hunting knife and camouflage backpack.

"I want to f*** you up," he emailed her on March 12, 2016. "You really f***ed me big time. I am just letting you breathe because of [their son]. Please don't force me."

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By now, 39-year-old Pilapil had started using the dating app Tinder. She started chatting with divorced 53-year-old businessman Keith Collins.

They arranged to meet for the first time at a shopping centre restaurant at Hornsby in Sydney's Upper North Shore on March 30, 2016.

Just after 9pm, the pair had finished eating when Villaluna walked into Kangnam BBQ restaurant, the decision says.

The attack happened at Sydney's Kangnam BBQ restaurant. Photo / Supplied
The attack happened at Sydney's Kangnam BBQ restaurant. Photo / Supplied

Chilling CCTV footage showed to NSW Supreme Court earlier this month showed Villaluna walk up to Collins and place an arm around his shoulder.

"What are you doing with my wife?" he asked.

Collins stood up and told Villaluna they were just having dinner.

"As Mr Collins turned to face him, the offender grabbed at his neck with his left arm and began stabbing him with the hunting knife in his right lower abdomen with vigorous underhand thrusts," Justice Robert Beech-Jones said.

During the stabbing, Pilapil begged, "Stop, we are just having dinner!"

But Villaluna continued with his frenzied attack.

After Collins fell to the ground covered in blood, Villaluna grabbed Pilapil and stabbed her in a punching motion under the left breast and in the right arm as she raised it to defend herself.

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As she slumped to the ground, Collins was still trying to get to his feet.

Jovi Pilapil had started using the dating app Tinder and was chatting with divorced 53-year-old businessman Keith Collins. Photo / Supplied
Jovi Pilapil had started using the dating app Tinder and was chatting with divorced 53-year-old businessman Keith Collins. Photo / Supplied
Collins was murdered by Alexander Villaluna in a Sydney restaurant. Photo / Supplied
Collins was murdered by Alexander Villaluna in a Sydney restaurant. Photo / Supplied

Villaluna, according to the agreed facts, knelt on Collins' chest and plunged the knife in a two-handed grip into his torso. CCTV shows he stabbed him at least another five times.

He then calmly walked out of the restaurant.

"Of all the cowardly and pitiless acts that the offender committed on this day, his actions in returning to finish off a dying man on the ground were the most heinous," Justice Beech-Jones said in sentencing Villaluna to 40 years with a non-parole period of 30 years for the murder of Collins and the grievous bodily harm of his estranged wife.

"The offender interrupted his vicious attack on his ex-partner to stab a defenceless dying man who the offender had never met and only because he dared to have dinner with a woman who did not want to be with the offender any more."

Pilapil had managed to run out of the restaurant. Bleeding from her wounds, she stopped at a fountain in the mall concourse.

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With the knife tucked under his arm, Villaluna followed her.

He called Pilapil's daughter and said, "I think I killed the guy. I stabbed your mum."

Villaluna asked a bystander to phone emergency services before returning to the restaurant.

He pulled out a chair and sat by Collins' body.

When a police officer came in, she told him to drop the knife.

"What has happened?" the policewoman said.

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"I come here, I find her with that man ... I stabbed him ... I stabbed her ... maybe in the legs."

"Why stab your wife?"

"She was with that man," Villaluna replied.

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