A man pleaded not guilty in the Central Criminal Court to the double murder of two of his friends, whose badly charred bodies were discovered in an apartment in Dublin in March 2001.
Mr Yu Jie (25), a Chinese national, who is known to some as "Jack", and whose last address was McKee Avenue, Finglas, Dublin, denies the murder of Ms Liu Qing (19) in an apartment at Blackhall Square, off North King Street, Dublin, between 6 p.m. on March 12th, 2001 and 3 a.m. on March 14th, 2001.
Mr Yu Jie also denies the murder of Mr Yu Feng (19) between 1 p.m. on March 12th and 3 a.m. on March 14th in the same place.
The trial heard the Deputy State Pathologist found the cause of death was strangulation, and the prosecution alleges the accused strangled his two friends and then set fire to the apartment in an attempt to hide what he had done.
The charred bodies of the two students were discovered lying on a bed in an apartment in Blackhall Square, near Blackhall Place, after Dublin Fire Brigade was called to the scene of a reported explosion and fire there in the early hours of March 14th, 2001.
Opening the case against Mr Yu Jie yesterday, Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, for the DPP, alleged that the accused man had strangled the couple two days earlier and had returned with petrol in the early hours of March 14th and set fire to the apartment in an attempt to conceal what he had done.
The prosecution alleges that the motive for the killings was larceny and that the accused was "acting alone".
Mr Vaughan Buckley said that the deceased were students in Ireland, but Mr Yu Feng's father was an "extremely wealthy man" and, unlike most of his friends, he did not have to do part-time work to survive. He told the jurors they would be able to see the movements of both the deceased and the accused prior to the killings because there was a CCTV camera outside the apartment. The last time Mr Yu Feng was seen alive on video was at 2.01 p.m. on March 12th, while the last time Ms Liu Qing was seen on video was at 6.16 p.m. on the same date.
Mr Vaughan Buckley said the evidence would satisfy the jury that in fact Mr Yu Feng and Ms Liu Qing were strangled on the night of the 12th. The pair had been living together in the apartment and were friends of Mr Yu Jie.
He alleged that Mr Yu Jie's motive was "larceny" and that shortly after the killings, he had paid off a number of debts. In addition, Mr Yu Jie was alleged to have offered US $400 to one person in exchange for £300 - "a good deal" for the person getting the dollars, Mr Buckley said, because the real rate of exchange would have suggested $345. He said the jury would see video footage showing the accused entering and leaving the apartment building on March 12th and allegedly returning in the early hours of March 14th, and leaving moments later.
Mr Vaughan Buckley went on to tell the jury that in addition to the CCTV evidence, the prosecution would rely on fingerprint evidence and on evidence that the accused allegedly gave conflicting accounts of his movements to other witnesses and to the gardaí.
The trial continues