A businessman has been convicted today after massacring a Manchester Metropolitan lecturer, his wife and two daughters in a twisted revenge plot.
Anxiang Du, 54, from Coventry, murdered Jifeng Ding, his wife Ge Chui and two daughters Xing, 18, and Alice, 12, in their Northamptonshire home on April 29 2011 with a kitchen knife.
The murders were a revenge plot after Du lost a 10-year legal battle with former business partners Mr and Mrs Ding which left him owing £88,000 in court costs.
Mr Ding was found in the kitchen with 23 stab wounds with Mrs Ding who had been stabbed 13 times. Their two daughters Xing and Alice found in their bedrooms.
A recording of Mr Ding’s two daughters frantically calling 999 before they were killed was played to the court with police responding to the call but arriving at the wrong house.
After the killings Du fled to Tangier, Morocco for 14 months before he was arrested and extradited back to the UK in February to stand trial for four charges of murder.
Du denied the charges of murder at Northampton Crown Court and instead claimed manslaughter due to loss or diminished responsibility.
After the hearing, Detective Chief Inspector Tom Davies said: “This was a heinous crime, committed by a man who knew what he was doing and went with a plan to kill an entire family in cold blood.
“The outcome today is a welcome relief for the family and friends of the Dings, who can now rest in the knowledge that the man responsible for the murders will likely face the rest of his life in prison.”
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