Chinese couple's killers get at least 34 years

Sentencing Lu Yao Jia, 20, to life in custody and Ji Peng, 25, to life in prison, Mr Justice King said at Leeds Crown Court yesterday the brutal killings of Jin Xue and his wife Li Xie were carried out in "chilling circumstances."

A third man, Liang Zhang, is being sought by police for his part in the "gruesome" slayings.

The judge said the deaths were planned to gain the couple's Timboo takeaway business in Fairfield Road, Bramley, Leeds for nothing.

They were illegal immigrants and were lured to a house on the pretext of discussions about buying the business but once there, they were attacked, bound and gagged.

Their thumb prints were put on a false sales contract shown later to staff at the takeaway their attackers wrongly believing because of their status no interest would be taken in their disappearance.

The couple were then carried hidden in suitcases in Peng's Mondeo car to Kensington Way, Leeds where he and Jia lived. Once there they were killed.

Jin Xie was stabbed four times, one wound penetrating his jugular vein. It was not clear whether his wife died from suffocation, strangulation or dry drowning.

No one could know the amount of mental and physical suffering inflicted on the victims before their deaths, he said.

Over the following weekend the bodies were driven around while a location was sought to burn them but were found by police before that was done.

Jia and Peng, were each found guilty by a jury of murder. They admitted kidnapping the couple on July 24 last year, for which Jia received 16 year concurrent sentences and Peng 13 years.

Zhang fled the country before the bodies were found.