Housemate identifies double murder accused

A housemate of a man accused of the double murder of a student couple has identified the accused in video footage outside the apartment on the date the State alleges the couple were murdered.

The accused allegedly strangled and later set fire to the couple in an apartment in Dublin in March 2001

Yu Jie (25), who is also known as 'Jack', with a last address at McKee Avenue, Finglas, Dublin, denies the murder of Ms Liu Qing (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 Mr Yue Feng (19) between 1pm on March 12 and 3am on March 14 in the same place.

Ms Liu Sha Sha, who paid rent for sharing a sitting room in the house in McKee Avenue with the accused and another witness, Mr Liu Pin, identified the accused on a photograph taken from CCTV footage of the entrance hall to the apartment.

The video still shows a man Ms Liu identified as Yu Jie standing in the hallway outside the apartment.

The time recorded on the video still was 17:51:42 on March 12 2001.

The jury has heard that in interviews with gardai, the accused man denied being in the apartment building at that time or date.

On the third day of the Central Criminal Court trial, Ms Liu told counsel for the DPP Denis Vaughan Buckley SC that she identified the accused in the image to gardai on March 22 2001 and that she signed the back of the photograph to acknowledge her identification.

She also told the court that the accused had asked her not to tell gardai that he had a bicycle.

Ms Liu said that on the night of the 13 March, she and Yu Jie finished work in McDonalds of Phibsboro at around 12:30am.

She shared a taxi home with the manager of the restaurant, while Yu Jie had a bicycle. He did not return home until around 1:30am.

She agreed with Mr Vaughan Buckley that when she first spoke to gardai after the bodies of Yue Feng and Liu Qing were discovered, she told them she did not know if Yu Jie had a bicycle or not.

Asked why she had not told them that in fact he had a bike, she replied, "Yu Jie said don't mention anything in relation to the bike."

Under cross-examination, Ms Liu agreed with Mr Blaise O'Carroll SC that she, Yu Jie and Liu Pin had went to get a bicycle earlier on the evening of the 13 from an appointed place in Buckingham Village.

The bike's "owner" did not turn up, but they took one bicycle away with them. She said Yu Jie or Liu Pin had paid "other people" for the bike. She denied that in her statements to gardai, she had tried to conceal the true nature of how the bike was obtained.

She had met Yu Jie when she moved into McKee Avenue a week after coming to Ireland in November 2000. They became close, but were just friends. He had a bad temper, but so had she, and they sometimes had "arguments and shouting". He had never displayed violence to her.

Ms Liu was asked to express the opinion she had formed of the accused in the months she had lived and worked with him.

"I think he's not a bad person", she said. "But sometimes he's acting like a child. He's got a bad temper; he has a good heart."

Yu Jie was a "smiley" person who told bad jokes that only he thought were funny, she agreed.

During the time she saw him on March 12, 13 and 14, she noticed no change in his demeanour or behaviour.

The other person who shared sleeping accommodation in the sitting room of the house in McKee Avenue with Yu Jie and Liu Sha Sha, Mr Liu Pin, told the trial that on the evening of March 13 the accused did not turn up for work in a restaurant in Temple Bar.

He had a second job there five days a week as a dishwasher. He was due to take over the dishwashing from Liu Pin at 5pm on the 13, but instead rang at 7pm.

The explanation he gave for his absence was "traffic", Mr Liu said. Later in evidence, he agreed with counsel for the state, Mr Vaughan Buckley, that Yu Jie had told him that he had problems with his bus ticket because he did not have enough of a fare.

Liu Pin told the court that Yu Jie had owed him money. He said he forgot how much. On the night of March 12, Yu Jie paid him £120 pounds rent that he did not owe him. Mr Liu said he forgot whether Yu Jie had given him more than £120.

The prosecution alleges that the motive Yu Jie had for allegedly killing his friends Yue Feng and Liu Qing was larceny.

The prosecution claim that Mr Yu strangled the couple on March 12 and then returned to their apartment shortly before 1am on the morning of March 14 and set fire to it in an attempt to conceal what he had done.

Mr Yu Jie denies the charges.

The trial continues before a jury and Mr Justice Abbott.