Murder accused 'couldn't bear' losing girlfriend

Double-murder accused Wen Hui Cui could not stand it when his girlfriend told him she was leaving.

He allegedly slit her throat "from ear to ear" and stabbed her two friends in the chest, killing one of the men and all but killing the other.

In her opening address in the High Court at Auckland, Crown prosecutor Louise Freyer told the jury: "He wanted Ruby to explain why she had left him and at one stage said something about asking Ruby to explain herself or to kill him with a knife."

Cui, a 21-year-old business studies student at Massey University, has pleaded not guilty to murdering 21-year-old Bin Lin, also known as Ruby, at a house in Black Teal Close in Unsworth Heights on the North Shore on April 13 last year.

Cui, represented by Barry Hart and Chris Comeskey, also denies murdering 20-year-old Ge Li, who died after being stabbed outside the house, and denies attempting to murder another of Ruby's friends, Jun Xin, 22.

Mrs Freyer said Ruby struck up a relationship with Cui towards the end of 2002 and moved in with him at the Black Teal Close house, where he rented a room, four weeks before her death.

But by the weekend of April 11 to 13 last year, the tourism diploma student decided to end the relationship.

She went to Rotorua with friends, but before she left told Cui she was not coming back to him, though she gave no reason.

Cui was upset and tried to phone her. About 9 o'clock on the night of the killings he managed to speak to Ruby, who told him she was coming to pick up her clothes. She went to the house with Ge Li and Jun Xin, who did not know Cui.

After she went inside, Mrs Freyer told the jury, the men outside heard screams and had the impression of seeing a struggle in an upstairs bedroom.

They phoned 111 but had to go to the end of the road to find out the name of the street to tell the police.

Another occupant of the house, Yongsheng Feng (Simon), a friend of Cui's, heard a woman say "let me go".

Mrs Freyer said when Ge Li and Jun Xin returned to their car, Cui came out of the house and walked towards them "at normal pace", before stabbing them both in the chest.

Police arrived to find Ruby lying on a bed, her throat slit, and Ge Li lying in a pool of blood on the roadside.

Jun Xin managed to stagger to a neighbour's for help.