A gambler killed his rich friend, dismembered him and put the torso in a suitcase before using his victim’s cash for a casino trip, a court heard.
Ming Jiang was being pursued by creditors but his friend Yang Liu, 36, could afford to gamble, Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court was told.
Mr Liu was ‘comfortably off’ owning his apartment at Media City in Salford, he played the stock market and had money in the bank.
Jiang, 43, who denies murder and lived in Beswick, east Manchester, decided to kill his friend, cutting his head and limbs off and placing the torso in a Samsonite suitcase, it is alleged.
He dumped the case in a remote layby in Derbyshire, on the Pennine moors between Manchester and Sheffield, before setting it alight - then went out using his victim’s bank card to withdraw £800 to gamble at a Manchester casino, the court heard.
It was found on October 10 last year by walkers just off the A628 road in Tintwistle.
Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, told the jury of 10 men and two women: “In early October 2016, the defendant, he came up with a solution to his financial problems. He murdered Yang Liu.
“He was a heavy gambler and like many gamblers lost more than he won.
“He dismembered the body, in all likelihood in his own flat and then disposed of the body parts of his former friend.
“He then set about assuming the dead man’s identity, gaining access to his bank accounts and his personal effects and his apartment.
“The body was badly burned.
“The body had been extensively dismembered.
“The head, both lower arms and both lower legs had been severed and removed. They have never been found.
“The limbs had been severed by, it would appear to be, someone who had been using some bladed form of weapon.
“From examination of the scene it appeared that the body must have been transported to the site and was in the suitcase when it was then set on fire.”
The court heard the victim was last seen alive ‘in the vicinity’ of the defendant’s flat on October 5 last year - the day the prosecution say he was murdered. Both Jiang and Mr Liu are Chinese nationals,
On the day Mr Liu’s remains were found Jiang sent a text message from his victim’s phone to the dead man’s mother in China saying, ‘I OK’ after she had messaged him, it is alleged.
Detectives trawled hundreds of hours of CCTV footage before identifying a silver Mercedes car approaching and leaving the layby area where the suitcase was dumped and found it was registered to Jiang.
Distinctive tyre tracks at the layby also matched the Mercedes and traces of blood in the boot matched DNA from the body.
Jiang was arrested and charged with murder, between October 4 and October 11, last year.
The trial was adjourned until Tuesday morning.