Screaming women heard in 999 call played to court in Chinese businessman's murder trial

 
Murder trial: Anxiang Du, 55
Pa13 November 2013
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Members of a jury in the trial of a businessman accused of murdering a family of four in their home wept today as a harrowing 999 call was played in court.

Anxiang Du, 54, is accused of stabbing to death Manchester Metropolitan University lecturer Jifeng "Jeff"' Ding, his wife, Ge "Helen" Chui, and their two daughters, Xing "Nancy" 18, and Alice, 12, on April 29, 2011.

Du has denied carrying out the four murders on the day of the royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Prosecutors allege Du stabbed the Ding family in order to "avenge himself" after their business relationship turned sour and he ended up owning thousands of pounds in costs following a lengthy legal battle.

Today members of the jury of eight women and four men wept at Northampton Crown Court as the 999 call made to police on April 29, 2011 at 3.32pm from Alice Ding's mobile phone was played to the court.

The sound of female screams could be heard on the 20-second call along with the muffled voice of the operator.

The court heard the four bodies were discovered two days after the brutal stabbing, on May 1, 2011, by police after concerned neighbour Jason Horsley went round to check on them after not seeing them over the Bank Holiday.

The jury were read a statement by Mr Horsley in which he said he went to check on the Dings after concerned friends knocked on his door asking if they had seen Nancy.

He went to the Dings house but there was no answer.

Mr Horsley then went around the back of the house where he saw a body on the kitchen floor through a window.

"I saw a pair of legs then I noticed it was blood on the floor", Mr Horsley told police in his statement.

Pc John Campbell told the court he was the first officer to arrive on the scene on May 1, 2011.

"Were you able to make out a pair of legs lying on the floor and a dark blot that you concluded was probably blood?", William Harbage QC asked the officer.

"Yes that's right," Pc Campbell replied.

Meanwhile a second officer who had arrived went upstairs and found the bodies of the two girls in an upstairs bedroom at the property in Pioneer Close, Wootton, Northamptonshire.

In a statement read to the court, Pc Eva Cheng said: "I opened the door with my baton and I saw two bodies in the room. I shouted to stay there before realising there were deceased children.

"There was a young female child laid on the bed with her head on the headrest. She was curled up and facing away from me.

"She was in her pre-teens possibly between 10-12 years old.

"I could not see her face but I could see a lot of blood on the bed."

The officer said in her statement that she then saw another older female body to the left on the floor.

"She was doubled up in what I can only describe as a prayer position with her upper body slumped and her arms out.

"There was a lot of blood on the carpet. The blood was thick and black in colour."

The officer said she felt "slightly sick" at the sight of the two children and had to "catch her breath".

Prosecutors claim Du travelled from his home in Coventry to the Dings house in Wootton, Northamptonshire, armed with a kitchen knife and knifed the family of four on April 29, 2011, motivated by revenge after a business relationship turned sour and he ended up owning thousands of pounds in costs.

The bodies of Mr and Mrs Ding were found in the kitchen by police two days later. Their two daughters were found in an upstairs bedroom, also stabbed to death.

Post-mortem examinations found that Mr Ding had been stabbed 23 times, Mrs Ding 13 times, Nancy had 11 stab wounds, and Alice had four.

On the first day of the trial on Tuesday, William Harbage QC, prosecuting, told the court Du had carried out the killings in order to get revenge on Mr and Mrs Ding, with whom he had been in business.

The court heard Du and his wife and Mr and Mrs Ding used to be in business together before the relationship turned sour and a long running legal dispute lasting 10 years began.

Du won the first battle but lost the last, leaving him owing £88,000.

Mr Harbage told the court an injunction served on Du the day before the killings, preventing him from dissipating his assets, was "the catalyst" for the events that unfolded the following day.

The following day Du visited his shop in the Pavillions Shopping Centre in Birmingham and left a farewell note for his wife.

Mr Harbage said that translated from Mandarin it meant "best wishes" or "eternal blessing" and said "Qian Qian (the pet name for their son) will care about Mum forever! Everyone has to say farewell one day!"

Du then caught a train from Birmingham to Northampton before taking a bus to the Dings' home in Pioneer Close, Wootton.

Jurors heard that Du killed Mr and Mrs Ding downstairs first before making his way upstairs, leaving a trail of bloody fingerprints and footprints, and attacking the girls.

Before "making good his escape" after the brutal attacks, Du washed the blood from his hands and from the knife, the court heard.

Du then fled; he drove to London where he took a coach to Paris, then travelled down through France and Spain to Algeciras on the Mediterranean coast where he took a boat to Morocco.

It was from there that he was brought back to the UK by the authorities earlier this year, jurors heard.

Mr Harbage said there was no argument that Du was responsible for the killings, but the defendant would claim he should only be convicted of manslaughter on the basis of either diminished responsibility or loss of control.

This was an argument the prosecution did not accept, jurors were told, and was simply an attempt by Du to "avoid his full responsibility for these grotesque killings".

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