Couple were strangled in apartment, court hears

A student couple whose badly charred bodies were found in an apartment in Dublin in March 2001 were strangled before their apartment was set on fire, the deputy state pathologist has told the Central Criminal Court.

Mr Yu Jie (aged 25) with an address at McKee Avenue, Finglas, denies the murder of 19-year-olds Mr Yue Feng and Ms Liu Qing in an apartment at Blackhall Square, North King Street, Dublin at times between March 12 and March 14 2001.

The prosecution alleges that Yu Jie strangled the couple on March 12 and returned in the early hours of March 14 to set fire to the bedroom in which their bodies lay to try to hide what he had done.

The bodies were discovered when Dublin Fire Brigade was called to the scene of a reported explosion and fire at the apartment at around 1am that morning.

On the 49th day of the trial today Dr Marie Cassidy, the deputy state pathologist, told the trial that a post-mortem showed the cause of death of Ms Liu Qing was strangulation and that the cause of death of her boyfriend Yue Feng was asphyxia due to ligature strangulation.

The pathologist found ligature marks on both of the deceased's necks and she said a pink cotton cord found at the scene could have been the ligature used to strangle Yue Feng.

Dr Cassidy also found abrasions and bruising to the wrists of both the deceased and she concluded that their attacker might have restrained them by binding their wrists.

She also found linear abrasions or "drag marks" on both bodies, suggesting, she said, that the bodies had been dragged to the bed where they were found sometime before the fire started.

The pathologist told Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, prosecuting, that there was no evidence of soot inhalation in either of the deceased.

The absence of significant levels of carbon monoxide or of cyanide in their systems proved the fire gases were not inhaled. It was not a case of death due to fire, she said, "but rather, the fire being used to conceal the method of death."

Dr Cassidy small pin-point or 'petechial haemorrhages' in and around the eyes and in other areas on both deceased. This was an indicator of asphyxia, she said, and while asphyxia or lack of oxygen can be a symptom of death by fire, petechial haemorrhaging is "uncommon" in fire deaths.

The presence of ligature marks on the necks and the evidence of asphyxial signs led to her conclusion that both the deceased were strangled.

The pathologist also said that she found no defensive injuries - that is, injuries sustained while trying to defend oneself - on either of the deceased.

She told the court that the nature of the ligature marks left on the neck of six foot-tall Yue Feng suggested that the assailant was behind him and probably at a higher level, as for example, if Yue Feng had been seated at the time of strangulation.

The trial continues before a jury and Mr Justice Abbott.