London: A businessman who stabbed a Chinese family of four to death at their home in Britain was found guilty today of murdering them.
Du Anxiang, 54, was convicted by a jury at Northampton Crown Court in central England. He was to be sentenced Thursday.
Du killed lecturer Ding Jifeng, 46, his wife Ge Chui, 47, and their daughters Xing, 18, and Alice, 12, at their home in the town on April 29, 2011.
The trial jury heard how Du "massacred" the Dings, his former business partners, in revenge after losing a 10-year legal battle over a Chinese herbal medicine business.
Du fled Britain, travelling through France and Spain to Morocco, where he was arrested in July 2012 after more than a year on the run. He was extradited in February.
"This was a brutal, shocking crime. Du Anxiang travelled to the Dings` home armed with a knife and killed the whole family," Steve Chappell of the Crown Prosecution Service said after the trial.
"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."
Du was left owing ?88,000 (USD 143,000) from the legal battle and the night before the killings was served an injunction freezing his assets.
He wrote a farewell note to his wife before heading to the Dings` house with a knife, some cash and his passport.
He first attacked the couple, leaving them for dead in the kitchen before going upstairs and slaying their daughters, who were cowering in a bedroom.
Ding had been stabbed 23 times; his wife 13 times; Xing had 11 stab wounds, and Alice had four.
Jurors wept when they were played a frantic call to the emergency services made from Alice`s mobile phone.
Officers were sent to the wrong address and their bodies were discovered two days later by a neighbour.
Du was eventually found in Tangiers, sleeping rough on some planks at a building site where he had been working in return for food and shelter. The site owner recognised his picture in a newspaper and informed the Moroccan police.
Du hails from Changsha, the capital of central Hunan province. He did not give evidence during the trial.
