Murder accused 'drove to airport with bodies in boot of car'

Ji Peng has admitted kidnapping Jin Xue and his wife Li Xie, but denies being involved in their murder and said he was shocked when he heard they had been killed.

He told Leeds Crown Court he had helped restrain the couple at a house in Holborn Grove, Leeds, on July 24 last year, where they were bound by his co-accused Lu Yao Jia and another man, Liang Zhang.

The couple were then put in separate suitcases and moved to a house in Kensington Way, Leeds, where he and Jia were living.

Peng told the jury Jia said the couple owed money and a friend was coming to collect them and he should not be around when that happened.

He told the jury he went out to meet with Zhang and later that evening when he returned to the house he was told the couple had been "questioned" by the friends and "then they were killed". Their bodies had been left in the garage at the house.

"I was shocked, my mind just went blank," he told the jury yesterday. "I could not believe what I heard or what was happening so I left them and went to the garage to check if it was real."

He saw the male near the garage door with the top half of his body in a suitcase. "The lower part of his body was outside the suitcase and a quilt was covering the body and the quilt had bloodstaining on it."

Peng said the woman's body was partly in suitcase in the middle of the garage. He could see no injury to her.

He added: "Lu Yao told me the female was put inside a bucket by somebody and she drowned. I touched her clothing and her skirt, it was wet."

He added: "I was scared, I didn't know what to do."

Peng told the court the three of them talked it over and decided to destroy the bodies. "The best way would be if we could burn the bodies with petrol."

The suitcase containing the woman was damaged so they switched her to one belonging to Peng. They loaded both suitcases in the boot of his Mondeo and they drove to a garage.

He said he bought two petrol cans and filled them. Later they drove around looking for somewhere to do that but did not find anywhere and when Zhang got a call from concerned friends of the couple they returned home.

The next morning they moved the suitcases back into the garage where they remained that day. Early the following morning he drove Zhang and Jia to Manchester Airport because Zhang had decided to fly back to China.

Peng said the suitcases containing the bodies were back in the boot during that journey in case anyone found them at the house.

Peng, 25 and Jia, 20, have both admitted kidnapping Jin Xue and Li Xie but each deny murdering the couple.

The trial continues.