One of men in ID parade 'was accused'

One of two men picked out at an identity parade is the man accused of the double murder of two Chinese students in an apartment in Dublin, a jury has heard.

A neighbour of the student couple told a jury she had a "gut feeling" that the murder accused was the man she saw outside the students' apartment moments after it exploded into flames.

But she also agreed that she found it difficult to distinguish one Chinese person from another and admitted that in a statement she said it was "because Chinese people all look the same".

Yu Jie (aged 25), who is also known as 'Jack', with a previous address at McKee Avenue, Finglas, Dublin, denies the murder of Ms Liu Qing (aged 19) in an apartment at Blackhall Square, off North King St., Dublin 7, between 6pm on March 12, 2001 and 3am on March 14, 2001.

Mr Yu also denies the murder of Yue Feng (aged 19) between 1pm on March 12 and 3am on March 14 in the same place.

The prosecution alleges that Mr Yu strangled the couple and then returned to their apartment shortly before 1am on the morning of March 14 and set fire to it to conceal what he had done.

The prosecution claim the motive for the alleged killings was larceny and that the accused was "acting alone".

A resident of the apartment block and neighbour of the student couple, Ms Una Murphy, told the Central Criminal Court trial that at around 12:55am on the morning of March 14, 2001, she was standing in her sitting room when she heard a bad explosion coming from one of the other apartments.

She opened the door and looked out. She saw a man standing outside Apartment 2, about 10 feet away from her. He was "Chinese or Japanese", about 20, of medium build and wore a baseball cap.

He looked straight down at her. There was a rubbish bag nearby. She went back inside her apartment and told her friends it was just someone putting out the rubbish.

Ms Murphy said she believed she had seen the man before amongst Chinese people who would come and go on the corridor from Apartment 2, but she was "not sure".

Ms Murphy agreed with counsel for the state, Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, that on March 20, 2001, she was asked to identify the man from a line-up of Chinese men wearing baseball caps at an identity parade in a Garda station.

"I said I thought it was either No 1 or No 9", she told the court. No 1 was slim and with the same kind of build as the man she had seen, she said. With No 9, "It was just something about him that just clicked. It was just when I looked at everyone and then I looked at No 9, I just froze; I had a gut feeling it was him", she said.

She now knew that No 9 was the accused man, Yu Jie, she said.

Under cross-examination, Ms Murphy agreed with Mr Blaise O'Carroll SC, defending, that she found it difficult to distinguish between Chinese people themselves and between Chinese and Japanese people.

"Most of them, the majority of them, have short black hair and light brown skin, so that's what I meant by Chinese or Japanese", she said.

She agreed that in her statement following the identity parade, she had said she was not sure whether it was No 1 or No 9, but that she said there was "something familiar" about No 9.

A housemate of the accused man, Ms Liu Sha Sha, told the trial that at the time of the killings, Yu Jie worked with her in McDonald's in Phibsboro. On the night of March 13, they both finished work at 12:30.

Yu Jie gave her £10 to get a taxi home, but in the event, her manager shared the taxi with her and paid the fare. Yu Jie did not return home with them. He had a bicycle with him that night, she said.

She got home to McKee Avenue, Finglas, at around 12:40 or 12:45am on the morning of March 14.

She heard Yu Jie coming in 45-50 minutes later. He did not tell her where he had been.

The following morning, Ms Liu said, she saw a notice in her language college informing students of the fire at Yue Feng's apartment and asking anyone with information to come forward.

She rang Yu Jie, she told the trial through an interpreter. When she told him of the fire, "he thought I was joking", she said. He said he was sleeping and that once he got up, he would go to Feng's apartment.

In other evidence, two relatives of the deceased told the court they identified the bodies at the city morgue in late March 2001.

Ms Liu Qing's uncle, Mr Song Shou Tian and Mr Yue's uncle, Mr Yue Lian Cheng, said they were certain of their identification.

Mr Philip Hickey, who was a member of a 'host family' providing accommodation and support for Yue Feng in his first month in Ireland, also gave evidence of his identification of the bodies.

Mr Hickey told the trial that when he attended the city morgue on March 15, 2001, he saw the accused man coming out after the first identification. "He appeared to be very distressed and he was inclined to get sick, although he did not get sick", Mr Hickey said.

He said that after the second identification, Yu Jie again appeared to be very sick, but did not actually get sick.

The trial continues before a jury and Mr Justice Abbott.