Massey stabbing trial: ex-flatmates say defendant was ‘obsessed’ with ex-wife

Warning: graphic content.

Former roommates of a man accused of murdering his ex-wife have described his fixation on her and how he spoke about the various ways he hurt her.

Manchao Li, 65, is on trial in Auckland High Court because he denies murdering Zhimin Yang, 57, and violating a protection order.

The Crown alleges that Li stabbed her ex-partner, also known as Jennifer, 12 times in a fatal attack in the West Auckland suburb of Massey in July last year.

Li’s former roommate Garrick Protheroe told the court that the defendant had said that life would be better if Yang were no longer on the planet.

Protheroe said he had repeatedly advised against violence.

“Don’t even entertain those thoughts because they’re unhealthy and they’re holding you back,” he said.

“Your marriage is over.”

Initially, for a short time, it seemed like Li was heeding the advice, Protheroe said.

“But then he turned a corner and it was full,” he said.

His personality changed and he returned to the man he had originally been who had an obsession with “getting rid of the bitch.”

“He showed me several rifles that he had. He showed me a hunting knife that he had bought. And a butcher knife.”

Protheroe said Li tested a tree in the backyard to see how the blade worked.

Li felt that if he used that to disfigure his ex, she would remind him every day of what he had done and how he had paid for it, Protheroe said.

Li had also talked about wanting to set her house on fire with her inside, the court heard.

Protheroe said Li, whose English was not as good as hers, also wanted help writing a letter to Yang’s employer.

He was “obsessed” with the fact that she had a really good job at the library, he said, and felt that if he wrote a letter saying she was evil, she would be fired.

Protheroe refused to help.

“Don’t go down that road, it’s not worth it,” he remembers telling Li.

Crown prosecutor Nick Webby asked if Protheroe had cared for his own well-being living in that house, and the latter replied that he was confident that he could take care of himself.

“But saying that, of course, you go to sleep at night and you never know what’s going to happen. So I didn’t feel comfortable, no.”

Defense attorney Sam Wimsett asked Protheroe if he knew about his client’s mental health issues and that a nurse or social worker would visit him.

“Someone came to see how he was from time to time, yes,” Protheroe said.

Wimsett also asked if Li was angry with the Ministry of Justice.

“He was mad at everyone,” Protheroe said.

“Immigration,” Wimsett added, “the courts.”

“He wrote letters to the Prime Minister, do you remember?”

“I didn’t know, but that doesn’t surprise me,” Protheroe replied.

The other roommate in the house, Theresa Bushell, also told the court about the blade, saying Li once put her hand on the kitchen bench and said “chop chop.”

Bushell recalled Li saying his ex-wife “couldn’t steal from anyone else then.”

“He had it in his head that she had stolen him,” Bushell said before adding that it wasn’t true.

He also told the court that Li had “very little respect for women.”

“The way he treated me sometimes, like I wasn’t there.”

In January 2018, Senior Sheriff Martyn Spear warned Yang of the threats against him, after Li’s support workers alerted the police.

Spear told her she had grounds for a protection order and worked on a security plan with her, the court heard.

When Spear later went to the defendant’s home, he very “forcefully” denied that the couple were married.

Li was warned about the threats, the court heard.

After the protection order was served, Spear participated in the removal of weapons from Li’s home.

Li was asked to notify police if there were any weapons at the scene, but he passed them and headed for his bedroom, an area he was told not to go to, Spear said.

“We weren’t fast enough because he reached behind the door and grabbed an air rifle.”

Then Li was restrained, he said.

Two air rifles were found, one had an end-mounted silencer and the other had the barrel cut off to make it a pistol, he said.

There also appeared to be a GPS tracking device, he said, and there were documents that appeared to show that he had been making efforts to find Yang’s address.

Bushell arrived and told Spear that Li was obsessed with problems with his ex-wife.

“Did you say anything about how Mr. Li intended to solve these problems?” Webby asked.

She said he had described a method of how he would kill her: lighting an object and throwing it through a cat door in her home while she slept at night, Spear said.

“I get very upset. I knew that it was very important for me to warn Ms. Yang as soon as possible.

“I drove directly to his workplace to warn him and discuss the additional security measures that would be necessary.”

The trial continues tomorrow.

Domestic Violence: Do You Need Help?

If you are in danger now:

• Call the police on 111 or ask your friends’ neighbors to call you.
• Run outside and go where there are other people.
• Yell for help so your neighbors can hear you.
• Take the children with you.
• Don’t stop to buy anything else.
• If you are being abused, remember that it is not your fault. Violence is never okay

Where to go for help or more information:

• Shine, toll-free national helpline from 9 am to 11 pm every day – 0508 744 633 www.2shine.org.nz
• Women’s Shelter: The free national crisis line operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – 0800 Shelter or 0800 733 843 www.womensrefuge.org.nz
• Shakti: Provides specialized cultural services for African, Asian and Middle Eastern women and their children. Crisis line 24/7 0800742584
• Not good: information line 0800 456 450 www.areyouok.org.nz