Business row ‘led to deadly attack on family’

Anxiang Du, 54, is accused of killing Manchester Metropolitan University lecturer Jifeng “Jeff’” Ding, his wife, Ge “Helen” Chui, and their two daughters, Xing “Nancy” 18, and Alice, 12. He denies four counts of murder.

During the first day of his trial at Northampton Crown Court a jury of eight women and four men heard that he stabbed the Ding family to death in order to “avenge himself” after their business relationship turned sour and he ended up owing thousands of pounds in costs.

Outlining the case for the jury, William Harbage QC said Du launched the attack on April 29, 2011, the day of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding.

He said: “[He] travelled to Northampton from his home in Coventry, via Birmingham, armed with a kitchen knife, and savagely stabbed to death firstly the two people, Mr and Mrs Ding, with whom he had been having a long-running legal dispute.

“Not content with killing them, the mother and father, in the kitchen of their own home, he then went upstairs to find their two daughters, Nancy aged 18 and Alice aged 12, cowering in a bedroom. He cold-bloodedly stabbed them to death as well.”

Mr Harbage told the court, which contained members of Mrs Ding’s family who had travelled from China to be present for the trial, that each member of the family had sustained a number of stab wounds, some of which were defensive, and some of which had penetrated the chest cavity, causing fatal damage to the heart and lungs.

Mr Harbage said the reason for the attack was “quite simply revenge” and that Du and his wife and Mr and Mrs Ding used to be in business together, but the relationship turned sour.

He said: “There followed a long- running dispute lasting for 10 years involving protracted and acrimonious litigation in the civil courts for seven of those 10 years.

“Although Du won the first battle, he lost the last and was left with a large sum of money to pay in costs, some £88,000.

“On the 28th of April 2011, the day before the killings, he was served with an injunction to prevent him from dissipating his assets.

“It was obvious to him that he had lost, he faced ruin, there was no other legitimate course of action for him to take to fight his case.

“And so he resorted to violence, to murder, in order to avenge himself of the people who had caused him such grief.”

Mr Harbage told jurors there was no argument that Du was responsible for the killings but he would claim he had not intended them to happen.

The trial continues.