Anxiang Du

Case record: Anxiang Du

Status and sentencing

Anxiang Du was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 40 years on November 28, 2013.

He was found guilty of the murders of four members of the Ding family at Northampton Crown Court in late November 2013.

Background

The Ding family were of Chinese descent. Professor Jifeng “Jeff” Ding, his wife Helen Chui (known as Helen), and their two daughters Xing (aged 18) and Alice (aged 12) were murdered at their home in Wootton.

Alice and Xing were talented musicians.

The murders took place at the Ding family home in Pioneer Close, part of the re-developed Royal Pioneer Corps’ Simpson Barracks in Wootton, a modern suburb of Northampton just over 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the town centre.

Anxiang Du was a businessman who had run a Chinese herbal remedy shop in Birmingham with the Dings. Since 1999, Du and his wife had been engaged in a ten-year legal dispute with the Dings after their partnership failed. Du faced a legal bill of around £88,000 after losing his final appeals.

Du had been served with a court order preventing him from disposing of his assets. This court order was served on 28 April 2011.

Du’s defence argued that his depression, described as resulting from the civil litigation between him and the Dings, affected his judgment. Mitigation also argued that Du had expressed remorse for what he had done.

The offence

The attack was carried out in late April 2011 at the Ding family home.

Du stabbed Jeff and Helen Ding to death in their kitchen before going upstairs to find the two girls, Xing and Alice, in a bedroom.

Du stabbed:

• Jeff Ding 23 times
• Helen Ding 13 times
• Xing 11 times
• Alice four times

A 999 call was made from Alice Ding’s mobile telephone at 3:32 pm. During the call, the screams of both girls could be heard.

The prosecution characterized the killings as “cold-blooded” and “considered act of revenge,” while the defence argued for a verdict of manslaughter on the grounds of loss of control or diminished responsibility.

The jury returned a guilty verdict on murder.

Investigation

Northamptonshire Police traced the 999 call to a neighbouring estate and did not investigate further. The call was later considered mishandled, and the Independent Police Complaints Commission would later say the call was “mishandled”.

Police officers visited the Ding’s house on 1 May 2011 at 8:00 am while searching for Du, but left when nobody answered the door.

During the investigation, it was later described that more than 240 police officers were deployed to track Du.

Detective Chief Inspector Tom Davies, who led the investigation, said Du had successfully evaded detection for months. He said: “That’s why I say he was a man with a plan. He did not hit any radar,”

Police officers visited Madrid and believed their inquiries there “played a significant part in the suspect’s apprehension”.

Arrest and extradition

After leaving the murder scene, Du fled in the Ding’s rented car.

Du traveled through France and Spain and took a ferry from Algeciras to Tangier in Morocco.

In Morocco, Du was arrested as a suspected illegal immigrant. Moroccan police released him because they could not determine his identity and were unaware that he was wanted in the UK.

Du remained in Morocco for further 14 months. In mid-2012, Northamptonshire Police announced they believed he was in that country.

A photograph of Du was printed in a local newspaper. A construction worker recognized Du and a man believed to be Du was found living in a partly built block of flats, where he slept on a makeshift bed and cooked food on a small gas-powered stove.

Du was arrested on 7 July 2012.

On 20 February 2013, Du was extradited to the UK with the approval of the Moroccan Ministry of Justice working with the British Home Office.

Officers made a formal application for extradition with the Home Office, although there was no formal extradition arrangement with Morocco.

On 10 July 2012, it was confirmed that the arrested man was chief suspect Anxiang Du.

Trial

Du appeared in the Magistrates’ court at Northampton on 21 February 2013 and was charged with the murders of the Ding family. He was remanded in custody.

He appeared at Northampton Crown Court the following day.

A provisional trial date was set for 5 August 2013 and was expected to last 10 days.

A plea and case management hearing scheduled for 7 May 2013 was moved to Nottingham on 10 May 2013.

It was later reported that the trial date could be preponed to 29 July 2013 following information on the availability of experts.

At the plea and case management hearing on 10 May 2013, a Mandarin interpreter failed to arrive at the court. The plea and case management hearing were re-set for July, with a trial due to begin on 12 November 2013.

On 18 July 2013, Du appeared at Northampton Crown Court and only spoke to confirm his name. No plea could be heard because tests were still being conducted.

He was expected to appear again before the court on October 17 to enter a plea, but it was postponed until 4 November. On 4 November, Du denied four counts of murder.

The trial started on 12 November 2013.

The jury was sent out to consider their verdict on 26 November and returned to court around midday on 27 November, finding Du guilty of the murder of the four members of the Ding family.

The jury had delivered their verdict on 27 November and returned findings of guilty on all four counts. The jury took just over three hours to find him guilty.

Quotes from the court and prosecution were recorded during sentencing and trial reporting, including judicial remarks and prosecution comments.

William Harbage QC for the prosecution told the jury that Du had come up with the plan after his legal appeals had reached the end of the road.

The judge’s remarks included:

“Anxiang Du, you have been found guilty of four counts of murder. No doubt your counsel will explain to you there is only one sentence I can pass for this.”

He also paid tribute to members of Helen Ding’s family who had travelled from China to be in Northampton for the case:

“I have observed the dignified way in which you have conducted yourselves throughout this trial, which must have been truly horrendous for you in a way that the rest of us cannot understand. I know nothing I can say will assuage the pain of the deaths of your sister, daughter and family. I just hope that at least the fact the man responsible for their deaths has been brought to justice will provide you with some closure over these terrible events.”

After the verdict, Steve Chappell, the chief prosecutor for the CPS in the east Midlands, said:

“This was a brutal, shocking crime. Anxiang Du travelled to the Dings' home armed with a knife and killed the whole family in their own home. The evidence was clear that this was an act of pre-meditated revenge and Du knew what he was doing. The Ding family were honest, hard-working and well-liked people. It is a tragedy that their lives were cut short in this way. Our thoughts and condolences are with their family and friends.”

Sentencing

On 28 November 2013, Mr Justice Flaux sentenced Anxiang Du to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 40 years.

Mr Justice Flaux said he had “borne in mind” that a tariff of 30 years or more would “mean that you will grow old, if not die, in prison”.

He said:

“What is clear from the evidence and the verdicts is that these were cold-blooded murders which in my view were pre-meditated.”

He said the attack had “wiped out an entire family,” targeting:

• Jeff and Helen Ding
• their daughters Nancy and Alice

Mr Justice Flaux said the jury rejected Du’s defence that he should be sentenced to manslaughter on the grounds of loss of control or diminished responsibility. He said:

“I'm quite satisfied that it was hatred, anger and your desire for revenge that motivated you to act as you did on the 29 April, not the moderate depression you suffered.”

He said:

“He had launched a ‘frenzied attack’ on Jeff Ding, killing him with a ‘savage butchery’.”

Mr Justice Flaux told Du:

“You did not lose your self control on killing Jeff Ding. In effect you executed the man you hated,”

He said he had shown similar callousness when he killed Helen, and the two daughters, before fleeing England to escape justice.

In mitigation, Rebecca Trowler QC argued that Du had been depressed at the time of the attack and had suffered from a “long period of stress as a result of the civil litigation” between him and the Dings, which had dragged on for 10 years. She said Du had expressed remorse, saying:

“Mr Du has asked to express his remorse through me this afternoon,”

Mr Justice Flaux said he was unconvinced of Du’s remorse.

He said the victims’ lives had been “senselessly cut short” and that two victims had been “particularly vulnerable because of their age”.

Outcome

A jury found Anxiang Du guilty of the murders of the four members of the Ding family on 27 November 2013.

Du was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 40 years on 28 November 2013.

Aftermath and statements

The Ding family traveled from China to be at trial. They said they were happy with the sentence.

Zuyao Cui, Helen’s father, listened to the proceedings through a translator. He said:

“a good mother, a good wife and she taught the two girls very well”

He described hearing the evidence in court as:

“like a knife to the body”

He also said:

“When the two families heard about this it was like the whole sky has fallen down,”

He said:

“We all cried together.”

Asked what he would say to the man who killed four members of his family, he said:

“I would ask Du why you did what you have done? How can you be so cruel?”

Timeline

• 28 April 2011 — Du was served with a court order preventing him from disposing of his assets.
• 29 April 2011 10:44 am — Anxiang Du boarded a train from Coventry to Birmingham, carrying a knife and his passport, after leaving his family a farewell note.
• 29 April 2011 — He boarded another train in Birmingham and travelled to Northampton.
• 29 April 2011 1:35 pm — Du arrived in Wootton.
• 29 April 2011 3:30 pm — Du killed the Ding family.
• 29 April 2011 3:32 pm — A 999 call was made from Alice Ding’s mobile telephone; both girls’ screams could be heard.
• 29 April 2011 9:43 pm — Du stopped at Junction 15a on the M1 motorway and bought a map of Northamptonshire.
• 30 April 2011 — Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras failed to detect the Ding’s car entering London.
• 30 April 2011 — Du abandoned the Ding’s car in St. John’s Wood and it accrued nine parking tickets.
• 30 April 2011 — Du bought a one-way coach ticket to Paris using his own passport.
• 30 April 2011 — Du’s wife reported him missing.
• 1 May 2011 8:00 am — Police called at the Ding’s house about Du being missing, but left after getting no response.
• 1 May 2011 — Bodies were discovered by a neighbour later that day.
• 4 May 2011 — Northamptonshire Police named Du as the chief suspect and believed he was “off the radar”.
• 7 July 2012 — Du was arrested.
• 10 July 2012 — It was confirmed that the arrested man was chief suspect Anxiang Du.
• 20 February 2013 — Du was extradited to the UK.
• 21 February 2013 — Du appeared in the Magistrates’ court at Northampton and was charged with the murders of the Ding family.
• 27 November 2013 — The jury returned to court and found Du guilty of the murder of the four members of the Ding family.
• 28 November 2013 — Du was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 40 years.

Other details

Du left a farewell note to his family. One version of the farewell note was recorded as: “everyone has to say farewell one day”.

Police officers initially suspected a possible murder-suicide and focused attention on London, Manchester and the Midlands.

It was said that automatic number plate recognition cameras failing to detect the car later hampered the police investigation.

Du was described as having travelled by coach under his own name and passport and taking a ferry from Algeciras to Tangier in Morocco.

The case involved arrests in other locations on 19 July 2012, including:

• a 54-year-old woman in Coventry
• a woman aged 39 in Gloucester
• a 22-year-old woman in Southend
• a man aged 25 in London They were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to assist an offender and were bailed until a later date.

A neighbour had discovered the bodies hidden behind a blue velvet curtain in the room that backed on to the garden.

Postmortems showed multiple stab wounds for all members of the family, and stab wounds to the chest were described as fatal. Ding and his eldest daughter were described as having suffered self-defence wounds as they tried to fight Du off.

Du stole the family car and abandoned it later.