Lap-dancer Chinese bride slain by jealous British husband, court told
Chinese wife who vanished, pregnant, a month after marriage was murdered by property tycoon consumed by jealousy, London jury told
When British property tycoon Robert Ekaireb and Chinese lap-dancer Li Hau Cao met in a nightclub in Ireland, they were smitten with each other, and within months they were married and expecting their first child.
The pair had finally found their perfect partners - a beautiful, exotic wife for him, a wealthy Western husband for her.
But a trial at the Old Bailey in London heard last week that Li's lap-dancing past provoked a jealousy in millionaire Ekaireb, 38, that he could never control.
He is accused of flying into a jealous rage and murdering the pregnant 27-year-old from Dalian within a month of tying the knot. He then made her body disappear into "thin air", the jury was told.
"The evidence presents a picture of a man who had become totally obsessed by Li Hua after first meeting her, and thereafter sought to control her," prosecutor Brian Altman QC said.
"But he was exercised by her past, in particular the fact she had been a lap dancer, and he would bring it up in discussions and arguments."