LONDON – A restaurant worker was convicted of murdering a Chinese couple at their home in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, allegedly seeking some of the money they had made from Internet fraud.
A jury returned verdicts against 31-year-old Guang Hui Cao.
He was convicted of murdering Xi Zhou, known as Cici Zhou, and Zhen Xing Yang, known as Kevin Yang, both 25.
Cao showed no reaction when the jury announced its verdicts, but he later fainted as a prosecutor said he would seek life sentences.
Zhou was suffocated by having a towel stuffed in her mouth and Yang's throat was cut, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said $356,000 had passed through the couple's bank accounts in three years, earned in part by Yang's earnings from sending information via the Internet from live football matches to Chinese gamblers who benefited from a TV time delay of several seconds. Yang also provided fake education certificates and other documents to Chinese students.
Cao came to Britain in 2001 on a student visa, and stayed on after it expired, working in low-paid kitchen jobs, officials said.
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