NZ jury jails father of 'Pumpkin'

Xue's wife was said to live in fear of him

A man who sparked an international hunt in 2007 after abandoning his three-year-old daughter in Australia has been found guilty of murdering his wife.

A New Zealand jury convicted Nai Yin Xue, 55, of strangling his wife at their home in Auckland.

He fled to the US after the murder, but abandoned his daughter at a Melbourne railway station on the way - an act that was caught on security cameras.

The child - Qian Xun - was picked up by police, who nicknamed her Pumpkin.

She is now living with her grandmother in China.

Violent and domineering

The defence argued that Xue's wife, 27-year-old An An Liu, had died in a sex game that went wrong.

But prosecutor Aaron Perkins dismissed the claim as "bizarre", saying her body had been found in the boot of Xue's car, and that she had been strangled with his neck tie.

"Pumpkin" now lives with her grandmother in China

Xue, who did not give evidence during the trial, punched the air in frustration when the verdict was announced and said in Mandarin "unfair, unfair", according to reports.

The court had heard that Xue, a martial-arts instructor, was violent. He had threatened to kill his wife if she ever left him.

The prosecutor said An An Liu had lived in fear of her husband, who was angry because she had not given birth to a son.

The case grabbed headlines across the world after footage was released showing the abandoned girl's plight.

Xue was eventually recognised by a Chinese family in Atlanta, Georgia, who tied him up and called the police.