KEY POINTS:
Nai Yin Xue injured his baby daughter, Qian, in a violent domestic dispute last year before attacking his wife with a knife, court documents show.
But he was let off with a warning.
He is now being hunted in the United States for the brutal murder of An An Liu, his wife.
The horrifying incident a year ago resulted in Xue being convicted for assault. Qian was just 2 at the time.
The body of An An was found on Wednesday in the boot of a car parked outside the family's Mt Roskill home.
Details of the earlier attack on An An and Qian are in documents released to the Herald yesterday by the Waitakere District Court.
Xue appeared in court on June 20 this year for sentencing on charges of assaulting Qian and An An and using threatening language. He was convicted and ordered to come up for sentencing if called upon within one year - meaning he was free, but could be recalled to court if he offended again in that time.
A police summary states that on September 20 last year, An An was sitting in the family's then New Lynn home feeding Qian when an argument with Xue erupted over finances.
Xue threw a mobile phone at An An. It bounced off her, hitting Qian on the head and leaving her with a small cut and a swollen forehead. He then punched his wife "two or three times, striking her above her right eye and nose area", the documents state.
As An An clutched Qian, Xue held a 30cm-long kitchen knife to his wife's stomach and said: "I treat you good and you don't treat me very well. I love you but you don't love me. I am going to kill you."
An An begged him for their lives and gave him a large amount of cash before fleeing the home with Qian.
Police became involved in at least one other violent incident involving the family this year in which they seized a sword and Xue's passport.
They were forced to drop the charges when An An refused to give evidence against her husband.
Women's Refuge spokeswoman Catherine Delore said Xue's suspended sentence was no more lenient than other cases of domestic violence that were perceived by the courts as at the "lower end of the scale".
"It does surprise us that there are still cases where clearly someone exhibits certain behaviour and they don't receive a strong enough message from the courts, and it is really disappointing.
"It was not enough of a deterrent and he may well have felt it was a slap on the hand and something that he was able to simply walk away from."
Further evidence of An An's sad life at the hands of a controlling husband has come to light from a woman who met her at a woman's centre after the assault last year.
An An had "tears on her face" and was "bleeding at the corner of her mouth". Her eyes were purple.
"She said she was beat by [her] husband ... It seems Xue wanted sex with her every day."
The woman said An An was very tired and slept with her daughter.
"She tried to escape from him but her passport was [taken] away by Xue and she was threatened by him. He said he will kill her and her family if she runs away.
"Even when Xue was took away by police he was keeping to threaten her, he must kill her. Annie was so scared. She was shivering when she was speaking."
An An told the woman she used to have a good job in China but wanted to study in NZ. But her English was not good enough and she failed exams.
Due to problems with an overdue visa, which she said happened after she was ripped off by an agent, she was too embarrassed to go back to China.
"This was why she married with Xue. Xue was nice to her in the beginning but was getting worse and worse and beat her very easily."
