THE owner of a Winchester Chinese takeaway has been jailed for launching a bloody double meat-cleaver attack on his wife’s lover after catching the pair in bed.
Long Fei Zheng, who owns the Oriental Star in Andover Road along with his estranged wife Xiu Ling-Ling, was sentenced to five years and three months behind bars after being found guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
The court heard how Zheng, 50, had become depressed after his marriage had started to fail in the summer of last year, refusing to accept his wife’s requests for a divorce – which they argued about on many occasions.
During that time Mrs Ling-Ling had grown close to Xing Lin-Nen, a chef who worked at the restaurant, who she later referred to as her boyfriend when questioned by police.
The judge heard from the prosecution that on September 8, 2021 Zheng had travelled to Southampton in a “state of depression” where he was found drunk and agitated on the roof of IKEA car park by security staff. They took him to hospital and called his wife who reportedly waved away their concerns, saying “he had been threatening to kill himself on a daily basis”.
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She then spent the night at the flat above the takeaway where Mr Lin-Nen lived, although the prosecution remarked it was unclear whether the pair were intimate.
The next morning on September 9, Zheng arrived at the shop and entered using his keys before arming himself with two meat cleavers from the restaurant’s kitchen.
In an initial statement given to police Mrs Ling-Ling described waking up to find someone had ‘come in shouting, continually striking out at Mr Lin-Nen’, who suffered seven “grave” wounds to the body during the ordeal.
She managed to force Zheng off Mr Lin-Nen before pushing him out the door, when he reportedly shouted, “how can you treat me like this after 19 years of marriage when I’m contemplating suicide”. He dropped one of the cleavers while leaving the flat which was later found by police.
Mrs Ling-Ling then made a distressing ‘999’ call to the police in which she said, “Help, my boyfriend has been chopped by my husband".
Officers attended Zheng’s address in Vernham Road, Weeke, where they found his car still warm with blood on the handle.
Zheng then picked up the phone to his wife and told her he was in Stockbridge Road, where he was arrested by armed officers shortly after. He was found in a ‘calm’ state by police in a blood stained jacket. While being booked in he said, “I was drunk, if I really wanted to kill him I would have".
Mr Lin-Nen was taken to hospital where he had to undergo emergency surgery for two of the wounds. A report compiled by the surgeons and read out to the court described how one of the blows split the top of his femur and severed several tendons in his upper leg. Another of the cuts had left him unable to move some of the fingers on his right hand.
The injuries were described as ‘grave but not life changing’. Both Zheng’s wife and Mr Lin-Nen declined to give evidence at the trial.
Prosecuting, Tim Moores said: “Mr Zheng used highly dangerous weapons in two meat cleavers, the defendant arrived suspecting the situation and armed himself in anticipation of finding his wife with the victim. It was also a persistent attack which required Mrs Ling-Ling to intervene.”
Mitigating for Zheng, Neil Matthews cited his client’s clean criminal record since arriving in the country as a refugee from China some 25 years ago.
He said: “This case is about a man who led a blameless life, who does something completely alien and out of character and he absolutely accepts his actions were wrong. At the time his life had fallen apart, the psychiatric report recognises there was a depression and Mr Zheng was under much emotional distress, which while it doesn’t excuse his actions, does add context.”
Sentencing Zheng at Winchester Crown Court on Wednesday, March 16, the judge, Recorder Louise Harvey said: “The attack was extreme and you gave no consideration to the wounds you were causing. Very simply, you were using an incredibly dangerous weapon. The assault was persistent and the harm caused was grave and very serious.”
Zheng, who had an interpreter with him in the docks, was given a 25 per cent reduction reduction on his sentence due to his guilty plea, clean criminal record and positive character references from his family – which Recorder Harvey referred to as ‘significant and extraordinary’ given the circumstances.
He’ll have to serve at least half of the total five year and three month sentence before being considered for release.
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