Xue appeals against verdict in body-in-boot murder case

Nai Yin Xue. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Nai Yin Xue, jailed for life for murdering his wife in September 2007, is to appeal against his conviction and sentence.

Xue strangled his wife An An Liu, 27, dumped her body in the boot of the family car and fled to Australia with their 3-year-old daughter Qian Xun.

He abandoned the toddler at a Melbourne railway station and flew to the United States, where he was arrested after a nationwide manhunt.

He was eventually caught on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia by members of the local Chinese community.

Qian Xun was taken to China to live with her grandmother.

Xue's lawyer Chris Comeskey said the grounds for appeal included the fact that jury members were not kept together during their deliberations.

Under rules which came into effect shortly before Xue's trial, juries can go home at night during deliberations instead of being kept together and accommodated in a hotel as was previously the case.

But the judge can still order that they be kept together, or sequestered, in the interests of justice.

"Jury non-sequestering is a fairly new thing, and this case had an extremely high profile," Mr Comeskey said.

"It's the sort of case where you are going to go home and all your friends would know it and have a view on it and the potential for influence is huge, you might have thought.

"It is one of the issues the Court of Appeal will be invited to consider."

Other reasons for the appeal included issues over the fairness of the trial, and the effect of the judge's summing up.

Xue loudly protested against the guilty verdict when it was given in the High Court at Auckland in July and Mr Comeskey indicated after sentencing that an appeal was possible.

He argued during the trial that Ms Liu may have died following a sex act gone wrong, pointing to traces of male DNA other than Xue's on two items of clothing found in the boot with her body.

Mr Comeskey said Xue was doing well in Rimutaka Prison in Upper Hutt and looking forward to the appeal.

He hoped a court date to consider the issue would be set before Christmas.

The jury found Xue strangled his wife on September 11, 2007 and dumped her naked body in his car outside their home in Keystone Ave, Mt Roskill.

- NZPA