A man accused of murdering a student has been found not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter by a jury at the Central Criminal Court.
Hua Yu Feng (27), The Woods, Woodbrook Glen, Bray, Co Wicklow, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Xiang Yi Wang (21), originally from Fuxing City, China, at Woodbrook Glen, Bray, on July 4th, 2003. He had pleaded guilty to manslaughter, but this was not accepted by the State.
Ms Wang, known as Linda, had been living with a Chinese family at The Grove, Woodbrook Glen.
A jury delivered the unanimous verdict after two hours and eight minutes of deliberation. The victim's mother, who was in court with Ms Wang's father and uncle, collapsed sobbing when she heard the verdict through an interpreter.
Feng was remanded in custody until Monday, when Mr Justice Butler is to deliver sentence.
Mr Diarmuid McGuinness SC, defending, told the jury that the killing was a "classic, if not tragic, crime of passion". "That's not to excuse it or justify it," he added.
Feng and Ms Wang had been in a relationship for 18 months. The day before the killing, Ms Wang had been on a date with Garda Seán Lynan, a man she had first met on June 17th through the Special Olympics.
Garda Lynan said Ms Wang had told him how much she liked him and had sent him text messages. On July 3rd, he collected her from Portobello college in his car and they drove to Enniskerry where they took a walk. The two went to a hotel about 10.30 p.m. and left about 12.30 a.m.
Garda Lynan told the court that Ms Wang had told him she had a boyfriend in China, "but that was over".
In his statement to gardaí, Feng said he called Ms Wang and she came out of her house to meet him and they walked to a nearby "garden". The jury had heard that Feng had bought three cans of beer and had been drinking alone in a pub. He returned to his home and retrieved a carving knife.
Asked if he intended to harm Ms Wang, he said: "No, I never meant to do that." He then left his house with the knife to go to Ms Wang's house, but he did not recall how he was carrying the knife. "At that moment I got very, very drunk and I was mad. I just remember the stories she told me of that man," he said. "That made me very, very crazy, very angry."
Ms Wang was found dead on the morning of July 4th with seven deep stab wounds to her trunk, lying face up in a green area near her home in Bray. A necklace she had been wearing was imprinted in her neck, indicating that her neck had been compressed from 15 to 30 seconds, the court heard.
According to his statement, Feng stood over Ms Wang and asked her for any final words. "All of the time she said, 'I'm sorry mum and dad'," he said.
"I said I loved her and I go with you," Feng said in the interview. "I found an empty can of beer to try and cut my wrist. I did not find the artery," he added.
He fled to Belfast on July 4th, where he was admitted to hospital after slitting his wrists. His cousin collected him from Belfast and brought him to Dublin voluntarily, where he was arrested.