Murder accused Nai Yin Xue and his wife had a troubled and violent marriage long before she was found strangled to death and dumped naked in the boot of his car, a court has heard.
An An Liu, 28, was found by police four days after the couple's 3-year-old daughter
Qian, nicknamed Pumpkin by police after she was abandoned by Xue at a Melbourne railway station, sparking an international manhunt.
When police found Ms Liu she had a man's tie around her neck and it was partially wrapped across her eyes. Apart from a pair of white gloves she was naked.
Xue is being assisted by an interpreter at his murder trial in the High Court at Auckland but when he was asked to enter a plea yesterday he said loudly, and in English: "I am not guilty - I am innocent."
Opening the case for the Crown, prosecutor Aaron Perkins said tension in the couple's four-year-old marriage was caused partly over his desire to have a son rather than a daughter.
"The accused was at this time an arrogant man who was very keen to have a son rather than a daughter, who domineered over the deceased, regulated the number of friends she could have and was jealous of his wife," he said.
Mr Perkins told the all-female jury of an incident that occurred in their New Lynn house almost a year before she was killed, in September 2006.
During an argument over money, Xue threw an object at Ms Liu which ricocheted off her and hit Pumpkin before he punched his wife two or three times in the head. He then threatened to kill her with a knife.
The police were called and Xue pleaded guilty to assault charges. Ms Liu and Pumpkin moved into a women's refuge before going home to China.
She returned to New Zealand in February 2007 to live with the accused but fled to Wellington in June that year after what she said was another violent incident between the pair.
She befriended the landlord of a Johnsonville boarding house who was woken one morning by a man creeping around the house with a torch.
Mr Perkins said Ms Liu, who was terrified and locked in her room, believed the man was Xue.
Ms Liu agreed to return to Auckland the month before she died. The Crown believes she was killed on the evening of September 11, 2007. The last known sighting of her alive was earlier that day.
After the murder, the Crown says Xue sought to escape by fleeing with his daughter to Australia. He took her with him because he knew it would buy him more time to escape before his wife's body was discovered, Mr Perkins said.
Once he was in Australia he tried to get a ticket to Los Angeles. When the travel agent told him it was not possible, he got upset and asked about other cities, in Europe and Africa, that he could fly to. He booked a flight for Los Angeles for September 15 - but not one for his daughter.
The next day he went to a train station with her and left her at the foot of an escalator and told her not to follow him.
"You may think the accused is thinking at that point in time as he passes through the airport that he's got away with killing his wife."
Earlier, Justice Hugh Williams told jurors they were not in a "court of morals" and the charges related only to actions that occurred in New Zealand.
Nai Yin Xue booked a flight to Los Angeles but not one for his daughter. Photo / Paul Estcourt
Murder accused Nai Yin Xue and his wife had a troubled and violent marriage long before she was found strangled to death and dumped naked in the boot of his car, a court has heard.
An An Liu, 28, was found by police four days after the couple's 3-year-old daughter
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