A debt-ridden gambler murdered and dismembered his friend before burning the remains in a “determined and ruthless” attempt to steal his identity, a court has heard.
Ming Jiang, 43, owed money to creditors when he murdered Yang Liu in early October last year, jurors were told.
The badly burned remains of the 36-year-old were discovered in a suitcase in a layby off Woodhead Pass in the village of Tintwistle, Derbyshire, on 10 October. His head and limbs were missing and have never been recovered, the court heard.
Jiang, a Chinese national, denies murder.
Opening the case at Minshull Street crown court in Manchester, prosecutor Peter Wright QC told jurors that Jiang and Liu were friends and shared similar interests.
Liu, who was also a gambler, was “comfortably off”, Wright told the jury. He had money in the bank, played the stock market and owned his own flat near MediaCity in Salford. His parents in China sent him money to fund his life in the UK, the court heard.
“He was, you may conclude, comfortably off. Sadly, that is also a fact of which the defendant must have taken notice,” Wright said.
“The same could not be said of the defendant, Ming Jiang, who was in debt. His gambling habit was expensive, he was being chased by creditors and had even resorted to pawning some of his possessions and a number of expensive watches.”
Between 5 and 10 October, the prosecutor said, Jiang murdered Liu and dismembered his body. Using a sharp object, Jiang beheaded Liu and sawed through the joints of his arms and legs with the aim of removing any identifying features, the court heard.
“Whoever was responsible was taking a very practical approach to their task and a very determined and ruthless one,” Wright said.
Jiang then set about assuming the dead man’s identity, jurors were told. He gained access to Liu’s bank accounts and his personal effects and began disposing of them too.
On 10 October, the day Liu’s remains were found, Jiang contacted his victim’s mother in China to try convince her he was OK, the jury heard. He replied to a message from Liu’s mother purporting to be his victim, saying: “I OK.”
Wright added: “Of course ‘I OK’ on the very day his body parts were being recovered in the layby could not have been further from the truth. We say it was the killer who sent that message – the killer had the dead man’s phone.”
Police were alerted to the remains when a passerby noticed burned vegetation surrounding a suitcase on the remote layby between Glossop and Sheffield. A walker later described a smell “like rubber or sewage” coming from the burning suitcase, which had been doused in an accelerant before being set alight, the court heard.
Officers were initially unable to identify Liu from the remains, jurors were told, and he had not been reported missing.
Murder detectives later traced Jiang when his Mercedes was captured on ANPR cameras driving to and from the scene at the time a fire was spotted on the layby. Days after the murder Jiang’s car was pulled over and impounded for having no insurance.
Detectives discovered that the car’s tyres, which were of different makes, were identical to prints found at the layby, jurors were told.
Tracing Jiang’s movements on the days surrounding Liu’s disappearance, officers trawled CCTV footage and found a man of east Asian appearance meeting Jiang and walking towards the defendant’s flat near Manchester City’s Etihad stadium on 5 October. This, the prosecution allege, was the last sighting of Liu alive.
Jurors were told that when officers first approached Jiang on 19 October he claimed to have lent his Mercedes to a friend named “J Wong”.
But Wright told the jury: “We say J Wong is this man’s alter ego. It was all part of the fiction.”
The trial continues.
