Jury retires to consider verdict in Yanfei Bao murder trial

The jury has retired to consider its verdict in the case against Tingjun Cao, the Chinese national accused of murdering Christchurch real estate agent Yanfei Bao.

In summing up, Justice Lisa Preston outlined the Crown's case that Cao, 53, stabbed Bao at a house in Hornby in July 2023, before taking her body to the outskirts of Christchurch and burying the 44-year-old mother-of-one in a shallow grave on a Greenpark farm.

She advised the jury not to infer anything from Cao's outbursts in court in the early days of the trial, his occasional absences and his decision to fire his defence lawyers and represent himself.

While the Crown case was circumstantial, that did not make it in any way "inferior", Justice Preston said.

"The logic that underpins a circumstantial case is that Mr Cao is either guilty or he is the victim of an implausible and unlikely cluster of coincidences," she said.

She reminded jurors that the burden of proof lay with the Crown, and that they must be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt the Crown had proved the charge, before they could find Cao guilty.

"You would need to be sure the Crown has proved that Mr Cao was Ms Bao's assailant and that he had murderous intent," she said.

Justice Preston said Cao's case was that much of the Crown's evidence was falsified and that another man he had just met, Tang, murdered Bao, took a graphic photograph of her body using his phone and took his car to dispose of her body.

"As you've heard, Mr Cao challenges the credibility and reliability of evidence for the Crown. He suggests that police and other witnesses evidence has been falsified," she said.

On Tuesday, Crown prosecutor Pip Currie told the jury the case against Cao was an "absolute slam dunk", outlining eyewitness statements and evidence, including social media transcripts, geolocation data, DNA and CCTV footage, information that placed the pair together at the time of Bao's disappearance and death, and the farm where her body was found almost a year later.

Cao, who arrived in New Zealand months before Bao's murder, was arrested at Christchurch Airport, with a one-way ticket to Shanghai days after her disappearance.

He was initially charged with Bao's kidnapping but days later police said they did not believe Bao was alive and launched a homicide investigation.

He was charged with Bao's murder last September, and pleaded not guilty. A kidnapping charge was later dropped.

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