Ding Family Murders: Anxiang Du Guilty

By David Crabtree, Midlands Correspondent

A man who killed a family of four with "ruthless efficiency" has been found guilty of murder by a jury at Northampton Crown Court.

Anxiang Du, 54, showed no mercy as he stabbed the family a total of 51 times.

The Chinese businessman wanted revenge after a lengthy legal battle with the Ding family left him with an £88,000 bill and facing financial ruin.

University professor Jifeng 'Jeff' Ding, his wife Ge 'Helen' Chui and their daughters Xing 'Nancy', 18 and 12-year-old Alice were "slaughtered" in their own home at Wootton in Northamptonshire on April 29, 2011, the day of the royal wedding.

Nancy and Alice Ding had cowered in an upstairs bedroom

Anxiang Du left a farewell note to his wife and travelled to the home with a kitchen knife.

Mr and Mrs Ding died in their kitchen. The killer then went upstairs to find their two daughters cowering in a bedroom. The court heard that he showed them no mercy.

As the family lay dead, Du stole their car and went looking for another former business associate, but he wasn't at home.

The killer drove to London and took a bus to Paris before travelling to Spain. He then took a boat to Morocco.

He was eventually tracked down to a building site and was extradited to the UK in February this year to stand trial.

Jeff Ding's brother Jee-Shang said: "I want to ask him. How could you stab a knife into an innocent girl's heart, not once but twice?"

It is possible that Du could have been caught much sooner. A screaming 999 call from Nancy's mobile was traced to the wrong house.

Anxiang Du was found guilty of four murders

Acting on other information officers visited the house two days later - but pushed a card through the door when there was no answer. All four lay dead inside.

Detective Chief Inspector Tom Davies from Northamptonshire Police said: "I recognise people will look at the 'three 9s' call in particular and be critical of that. We've dealt with that, the Independent Police Complaints Commission were involved in an extensive investigation.

"The important aspect for the investigation team was to deal with the challenges we were presented with. We did have several challenges to overcome and make sure we identified where he was residing, in this case Tangiers and get him back to the UK to face justice."

Du had been involved with the Dings in a herbal medicine business. But that "turned sour" descending into a 10-year legal battle.

The day before the killings Du was served with an injunction preventing him from dissipating his assets.

Post-mortems revealed the terrible extent of his revenge. Mr Ding was stabbed 23 times, his wife 13 times. Nancy had 11 stab wounds and Alice had four.

CCTV footage showed Du with the family's car

There was never any dispute about Du's responsibility for the killings. His fingerprints were found in blood at the scene. But he denied four counts of murder, hoping instead to be convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Helen Ding's father Ding Zuyao Cui said: "The evidence being presented in court felt like I was being stabbed in the heart.

"The 999 call sounded like it was asking me to help, but I wasn't there. So it is very sad."

Helen's brother Xin Cui said: "This has really hurt me. I am really angry."

Police said it is unlikely the Dings could have been saved, even if the emergency call had been handled differently.

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