Boys discover vital evidence in park; Chance find provides a breakthrough.

Byline: Garry Willey

ACHANCE find by two youngsters in a park trapped the brutal killer of a Chinese betting crook and his waitress girlfriend on Tyneside, a murder jury heard.

Zhen Yang and Xi Zhou, both 25, were found dead at the flat they shared in Croydon Road, Arthur's Hill, after anxious friends climbed inside the property almost 48 hours after the ferocious attack.

Zhen - known as Kevin and involved in a near quarter million pounds internet betting scam - had been bludgeoned with a hammer before having his throat cut.

Zhou, known as Cici and a popular waitress at Wagamamas, had been bound, gagged, and battered with a similar weapon.

The killer or killers had even drowned her pet cat, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

A month on from the killings last August police were still hunting the murderer.

But the breakthrough came when the officer in charge, Detective Superintendent Steve Wade, made an appeal on the Crimewatch programme.

He was seen by the father of one of two boys who had found a carrier bag containing three mobile telephones in Nunsmoor Park not far from the murder scene, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

Fingerprints from the bag led police to the home of restaurant worker Guang Cao in Castle Close, Morpeth, the court heard.

And when his room was searched, officers recovered spectacles and a wrist watch stained with tiny amounts of Kevin's blood, it was claimed.

"When the spectacles were scientifically examined a flake of blood was found on the edge of the lens adjacent to the metal frame," Robert Smith QC, prosecuting, told the jury.

"That has been subject to DNA profile and matches the DNA of the dead man Kevin Yang". More blood was found in the buttons of the wrist watch which again matched Kevin's DNA, the court heard.

A DNA profile was made from 31-year-old Cao himself and found to match a profile lifted from a pair of heavily bloodstained trousers left at the murder scene, Mr Smith said.

The vital breakthrough began on September 9 last year when two schoolboys - identified only as Craig and Shaun - went to Nunsmoor Park and spotted a coloured object largely hidden under ground bark, the court was told.

"The boys saw the object was a carrier bag and that wrapped around it was tape adhesive, tape of a distinctive design with a Tazmanian Devil on it, the type of tape used to seal a gift or present," Mr Smith said.

"They partly opened the bag by making a hole in it and saw it contained three mobile telephones which they took out".

The boys showed their find to one of their fathers and after new sim and batteries were fitted in one of them, he turned on the phone to see pictures of a Chinese boy and girl, the court heard.

He also read texts and saw reference to the dead couple's flat in Croydon Road..

Two days later, the Crimewatch show was aired and the evidence - including all three Nokia, Sony, and LG phones - were handed to police, Mr Smith said..

For the latest on the court case, go to www.journallive.co.ukThe boys saw the object was a carrier bag and that wrapped around it was tape adhesive

CAPTION(S):

A COMMUNITY IN SHOCK Floral tributes at the scene of the murder of Xi Zhou and Zhen Xing Yang in Croydon Road, Fenham, Newcastle. Guang Cao is on trial for the double murder.