Chinese takeaway trial: Family friend guilty of murdering girl

A man who was considered a close relative has been found guilty of murdering a 16-year-old girl at her family's Chinese takeaway.

Wenjing Lin died in Ynyswen, Treorchy, Rhondda Cynon Taf, on 5 March.

Chun Xu, 32, of no fixed address, had denied murder but admitted manslaughter at the Blue Sky takeaway.

During the trial at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court, jurors heard that he said he "did not mean to hurt the little girl. I wanted revenge on her mother".

He was also found guilty of the attempted murder of Wenjing's stepfather Yongquan Jiang.

After the verdict, the judge said Xu could expect "a sentence of life imprisonment".

Speaking afterwards, Wenjing's mother, Meifang Xu, said she still could not comprehend Xu's actions, but was "so relieved justice has been done".

During the trial the court heard Xu was regarded as a nephew to the teenager's mother, although there had been disagreements between their families in the past.

Before the murder, Xu had stayed with the family overnight, bringing with him a knife from another Chinese restaurant he was working at.

The following morning, Wenjing was getting ready for school and messaging friends on Snapchat.

She had sent her last message to friends at 09:30, and did not respond after that as she had by then been killed by Xu.

Later that morning, Mr Jiang heard someone pacing around downstairs and found Xu, who invited him into the basement for a cigarette and to get some fish from the freezer, the court heard.

As Mr Jiang opened the freezer, he was stabbed in the neck and body with two knives by Xu, the trial heard.

During the struggle, Mr Jiang asked him why he was attacking him, to which he replied "money, money, money," jurors heard.

Wenjing's mother Meifang Xu, then came down the basement stairs and saw the two fighting. As she tried to ring a friend, Chun Xu bit her.

Mr Jiang managed to get back onto the ground floor where he found his stepdaughter's body on a black mat by the takeaway counter.

Despite attempts made by the emergency services, the 16-year-old could not be revived.

After the attack, the defendant was found in the kitchen with a self-inflicted injury to his throat.

Speaking after the verdict, Wenjing's mother, Meifang Xu, said: "Our lives have been turned upside down.

"I was crying every day... I cannot imagine what my life will be like without her, she was my only child.

"The perpetrator has broken our family."

Ms Xu also revealed Wenjing passed all of her GCSEs with A grades "but she will never know the results she had worked so hard for".

She said her partner Mr Jiang was previously a strong, fit man, but since the attack he struggles to work and also has "nightmares of Wenjing Lin lying on the floor by the counter".

She added that she could "never forgive" Xu since her daughter's murder, describing Wenjing as "my everything - everything of me".

"I hope there won't be any innocent victims like Wenjing," she said.

A statement from Rhiannon Davies, the deputy headmistress at Treorchy Comprehensive school, where Wenjing was a pupil, said she was an "exceptional student".

Ms Davies said that on the day of her death, Wenjing had logged on for a maths lesson, adding she would be "sorely missed".

In December 2020, the family entrusted Xu with £20,000 that he said he would send back to China for them to pay a friend who had loaned them money to start their business in the UK.

However, Xu only sent some of the money back and gambled away £14,000, which he had then begun paying back.

Sentencing is due to take place on Friday.