Today, Justice Lisa Preston told the court Cao has requested not to be present in the courtroom during his trial, waiving his right to appear.
The case has been delayed until 10am tomorrow to allow Cao, who doesn’t speak or write English, the chance to listen to his Mandarin translator, who interprets each sentence in real time.
Justice Preston told the jury: “It’s very important that you understand that no adverse inference is to be drawn from Mr Cao’s absence from the courtroom yesterday or today.
“That is to say, his absence is certainly not an admission of guilt and does not advance the prosecution case in any way.”
Justice Lisa Preston. Photo / George Heard
Lawyers for Cao told the opening day of the trial on Monday that the case was far from simple and that the evidence cannot sustain a guilty verdict in any way.
Cao, who came to New Zealand months before the alleged killing, met Bao when she helped him purchase a house for his brother-in-law when he arrived in New Zealand.
Cao struggled with English, so they stayed in touch after that, with Bao helping him find a job.
The Crown claims Cao had arranged to meet Bao at a house in Trevor St, Hornby that she was selling, claiming that he had a Chinese buyer after a $650,000 three-bedroom house.
But when she arrived, the Crown alleges that he attacked, stabbing her multiple times, dragging her body out of the house and into a car before dumping her in a shallow grave on a farm outside town.
He was then caught at Christchurch International Airport trying to flee for Shanghai, the Crown told the court, while it took police 12 months to find Bao’s remains.
Yesterday, Bao’s partner, laboratory technician Paul Gooch, told the court how July 19 last year unfolded. In a relationship with Bao for five years, the last he saw her was when he kissed her forehead before leaving for work about 7.45am.
She never returned home that night. He described the horror of realising she was gone.
Yanfei Bao. Photo / Supplied
The Trevor St house was later forensically examined. The Crown says blood found at the back entry and in the front bedroom matched Bao’s DNA, while blood discovered in the boot and rear footwell of Cao’s car also matched Bao.
CCTV from various cameras, along with phone polling and geolocation data, traced the murder accused’s movements across the city after the attack, the Crown alleges.
Forensic pathologist Dr Leslie Anderson conducted an autopsy on Bao’s body which was in an “advanced state of decomposition” by the time she was found.
