Gardaí used Chinese policeman as translator

Gardaí sourced a Chinese policeman through Interpol to act as a translator during their interrogation of a man accused of double murder, a jury heard today.

The jury heard that the accused man "fancied" his original translator and had asked her out on a date after she was involved in taking a witness statement from him over three days in the Bridewell garda station.

A Chinese national, Mr Yu Jie, aged 25, with a last address at McKee Avenue, Finglas, Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of English language student 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.

He has also denied the murder of Ms Liu's boyfriend, Mr Yue Feng, aged 19, between 1pm on March 12 and 3am on March 14 in the same place.

On the 37th day of evidence in the Central Criminal Court trial, Detective Inspector John McMahon was cross-examined by defence counsel Mr Blaise O'Carroll SC on the circumstances in which a high-ranking Chinese policeman on secondment to Interpol, came to be involved in the case.

D.I. McMahon said that when the investigation started and gardaí were taking witness statements, they retained the services of translators through contact with the Department of Justice.

The gardaí later became aware that some of the translators knew some of the people involved in the case, and they decided to take steps to ensure that independent translation was available to them when they came to interview suspects, he said.

He said that when Yu Jie gave a detailed witness statement over three days between March 16 and March 18 2001, the interpreter used was Ms Yuan Li Li.

On completion of the witness statement, Yu Jie asked one of the investigating gardai, Detective Garda Peter Woods, for Ms Yuan's phone number.

Yu Jie said he wanted to go out on a date with her. D.I. McMahon said that with Ms Yuan's permission, the number was passed over and the date subsequently happened.

Ms Yuan was not used in further interviews with Yu Jie but she was used as a translator for other witnesses in the case, D.I. McMahon said.

Mr O'Carroll put it to him that Ms Yuan had been "demoted" because Yu Jie "fancied her" and she had went out on a date with him.

"It was not a case of demoting her: she was used on the day Yu Jie was arrested, she was used in relation to other witnesses", D.I. McMahon said.

He said the decision had nothing to do with Ms Yuan.

Early on in the Garda investigation, it was decided to seek the services of an independent translator, preferably from outside the country, when it came to interviewing suspects, he said.

He said that gardaí sought the assistance of Interpol to seek a translator of Mandarin Chinese.

"It just so happened that the only one we could locate was in Lyon, in France", he said. The translator was a Chinese policeman of the rank of 3rd class Commissioner, the equivalent of an Assistant Commissioner here. He was on secondment to Interpol and was based in France.

D.I. McMahon agreed that gardaí looked for a Mandarin and English-language police officer.

Having a police officer as a translator was "a bonus", he said, but he denied that the presence of a Chinese policeman was designed to put extra pressure on the accused during interrogations.

D.I. McMahon told the trial that on March 21 2001, he compared the contents of Mr Yu's witness statement with video footage of the suspect coming and going from the apartment at Blackhall Square and separate video footage of a man entering the USIT student travel office on Aston Quay.

He said that he examined video stills of the USIT footage showing a person entering the premises with a red Dixons bag in his hand at 12:02pm on March 13 2001.

Video stills taken from CCTV footage at the entrance to the Blackhall Square apartments showed the suspect for the double murder leaving the apartments with a red Dixons bag in his hand at 11:35am, some 25 minutes earlier, on the same date.

"I was satisfied that the person I could clearly identify as Yu Jie on the USIT footage was also the person on the footage from Blackhall Square", the detective said.

In his witness statement, Yu Jie told gardaí that he stayed in bed until later in the afternoon of March 13 and then into USIT.

D.I. McMahon pointed to two other inconsistencies between Yu Jie's account of his movements and the content of video footage.

He said these, combined with other evidence, gave him "reasonable grounds to suspect that Yu Jie was the culprit".

That evening, March 21, he obtained a search warrant for Yu Jie's rented accommodation in Finglas and he arrested him on the following morning, March 22.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Abbott and a jury.