Man who abandoned daughter guilty of murder

A New Zealand man who dumped his three-year-old daughter at an Australian train station then fled to the US has been found guilty of killing his wife.

A New Zealander has been found guilty of his wife's murder in a case that sparked an international manhunt after he abandoned his toddler at a train station and fled to the United States. Nai Yin Xue shouted, "I'm innocent, I'm innocent," and pumped his fist in the air as the judge sent him into police custody for sentencing July 31 at the High Court in Auckland. Some members of the all-women jury wiped away tears.

The jury found that Xue killed his wife, An An Liu, 28, in September 2007, then took their three-year-old daughter to Australia. The girl, Qian Xun Xue, was later found crying at a train station in Melbourne after her father abandoned her and fled to the United States. She was nicknamed "Pumpkin" because of the brand of clothing she was wearing. Eight days after Xue fled, police found Liu's naked body in the trunk of Xue's car with a necktie around her neck. The prosecution said she had been strangled to death.

US authorities launched a manhunt for Xue, who was captured nearly five months later by six Chinese Americans near Atlanta, after the group recognised him from a newspaper. Xue, 55, a martial arts expert and owner-publisher of the Auckland-based Chinese Times newspaper, was extradited to New Zealand to face the murder charge, which carries a life sentence. Defence lawyer Chris Comeskey told the court Xue did not kill Liu, but said she may have died accidentally during a consensual sex act involving a tie.

Xue did not know his wife was dead when he flew to Melbourne, he said. Comeskey said Xue was "devastated" by the verdict. Speaking outside the court after the verdict, inquiry head Detective Senior Sergeant Simon Scott said the toddler was "happy, healthy and thriving" with her grandmother in China. *AP