Poisoned by Chinese lover with a 'wolfish appetite for sex': Old Harrovian was given cyanide by top politician's wife after '£13m blackmail' threat to playboy son

• Heavy security around Hefei People's Court
• Foreign media denied access, blogs deleted, online searches disabled
• Guilty verdict may lead to the death penalty
• Lack of objection from Gu Kailai considered an admission of guilt
• Four police officers face 'cover-up' charges

Old Harrovian Neil Heywood was murdered by one of the most powerful women in China after he made a threatening demand for £13million from her playboy son, a court heard yesterday.
Gu Kailai, who was said to be having an affair with the British businessman, lured him to a hotel room where she got him drunk and then laced his drink with cyanide.
The alleged motive behind 41-year-old Mr Heywood’s grisly death was revealed at the murder trial of Gu, dubbed the Jackie Kennedy of China. Her lawyer even argued that affable Mr Heywood, a father of two young children, ‘should bear some responsibility’ for his own murder.

In the dock: Gu Kailai, 52, and aide Zhang Xiaojun, 33, are escorted into the Hefei City People's Court to face charges relating to the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood in November

No contest: Gu and Zhang did not raise any objections that on November 13, 2011, they went to Heywood's hotel room and, after getting him drunk, administered a fatal poison

Under heavy skies: The People's Court in Hefei, Anhui province in China, where Gu Kailai and a household aide are being tried for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood

Tight security: A line of police officers stand outside the court, which has been closed off to foreign journalists. More traffic police patrol the streets around the courthouse

The court heard the Jaguar-driving Englishman had fallen into an ‘economic dispute’ with Gu’s party-loving son Bo Guagua, 24, whom Mr Heywood had once mentored to secure a place at his alma mater, Harrow School.
Mr Bo, known for a love of champagne and shisha parties while studying at Oxford University, was allegedly told by Mr Heywood: ‘If you do not give me £13million, you will be destroyed,’ the judges heard, according to a reliable source who was in the courtroom.

These threats, in an email or letter, were said to have been forwarded by Bo to his mother.
International media were banned from the highly-politicised trial, which concluded in less than seven hours in the Intermediate People’s Court in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei. The source added that the court heard it was not the first assassination plot on Mr Heywood, with Gu having previously conspired to kill him with a local police chief.

Political scandal: Gu Zailai, left, with her husband - former Chongqing Municipality Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai. The murder case is one of China's biggest political scandals

KILLER HAD 'WOLFISH APPETITE FOR SEX'

Gu Kailai was a humiliated wife who had a ‘wolfish appetite’ for sex, Chinese investigators claimed.
As her trial went ahead, police said she was vulnerable because her husband indulged in affairs and she was at an age when her sex drive increased.
The claim was made to justify Beijing’s official version that Gu had been involved in an affair with Neil Heywood.
It is also claimed that British spies pushed Mr Heywood into having an affair with Gu because they were convinced her husband Bo was a rich source of intelligence.
The suggestions surfaced via ‘political insiders’ in Beijing quoted in a Hong Kong magazine.
Its story begins in the 1990s after Mr Heywood began tutoring Mr Bo’s young son in English, and the boy was put into Papplewick, a prep school in Berkshire.
Gu travelled to England to be near her son, taking a flat in Bournemouth. According to the magazine which quoted a police chief in the case, she was ‘hungry’ for sex.
‘At that time Gu Kailai was about 40 years old, which is an age when women have a wolfish appetite for sex,’ he said, ‘and they soon became lovers.’ 
After Gu returned to China, Mr Heywood married a Chinese woman, Lulu Wang. But the magazine alleges MI6 pushed him to resume the affair. Friends of Mr Heywood have dismissed the claims as nonsense.

There have been reports, denied by Mr Heywood’s friends, that he and Gu – the wife of deposed Communist chief Bo Xilai – were having an affair. Last night, after the secretive trial ended, officials gave brief details of the case.

Poisoned: An undated photo of businessman Neil Heywood, who had close ties to the Bo family before his death in November last year

The court’s deputy director Tang Yigan announced: ‘Gu Kailai believed that Neil Heywood had threatened the personal safety  of her son Bo and decided to  kill him.’
Gu summoned him to Chongqing, the mega-city in southwestern China where her husband was Communist Party Secretary, on November 13 last year. They drank tea and wine together in room 1605 of the ‘Lucky Holiday Hotel’, before  Mr Heywood became drunk and was sick.
After he had vomited, Gu, 53, helped him drink a glass of water – which she had mixed with a lethal draft of potassium cyanide. A tiny drop can cause agonising death within minutes. ‘She poured it into Heywood’s mouth, killing him,’ said Mr Tang.
State television showed Gu, wearing a dark trouser suit and a white shirt, being led into the courtroom and seated in the dock. She appeared to have put on weight since she was detained earlier  this year.
Neither Gu nor her co-accused – family bodyguard Zhang Xiajun, 33, who is alleged to have prepared the poison – entered pleas but they did not contest the murder charge against them. A student who was allowed to witness the case said Gu had appeared ‘calm’, despite the possibility she could be sentenced to death. ‘There were no tears. Both looked quite calm, peaceful. Both said they accepted the court’s authority,’ said the student. Mr Tang said prosecutors believed the facts of the ‘brutal’ crime were clear and backed by ‘ample evidence’, and that ‘Gu Kailai is the main culprit and Zhang is the accomplice’.

Information blackout: As police control the situation outside the courthouse, the government has rigorously censored all reporting of the case within the country

Implicated: The official allegation against Gu suggests Heywood might have been making threats against her son Bo Guagua, 24

During the hearing, Gu was in a stable mood, said Mr Tang, but at the time of the murder, she had suffered from a ‘weaker than normal ability to control herself’.
Gu had reportedly made a full confession to police, which it was in her interests to do because it will act in her favour during sentencing deliberations. The judges reserved their verdict to an unspecified date within the next 30 days.
She will almost certainly be found guilty, but could be spared the executioner’s bullet because of her defence that she was only trying to protect her son. In a bid to further lighten her sentence, Gu was said to have made accusations about ‘other people’s crimes’, although no details were given.
Meanwhile, four policemen have been charged with trying to protect Gu from investigation – a development that could prove dangerous for her husband, who has so far not been charged with any offence.
Police sources in Chongqing have said the former Politburo member tried to shut down the investigation into his wife after being told she was a suspect.
Gu, herself a career lawyer, was defended by a state-appointed lawyer with meagre experience in criminal cases.
As Mr Heywood was a British citizen, two UK diplomats were allowed rare access to witness proceedings. Friends and relatives of Mr Heywood were also among 140 people in court.

 

XINHUA NEWS AGENCY'S OFFICIAL ACCOUNT OF THE GU KAILAI COURT CASE

This is the main part of the official account of the trial published by China's state-run Xinhua news agency. It refers to Gu by her official name, Bogu Kailai:

'On August 9, the Hefei Intermediate People's Court in Anhui province held an open trial for the accused Bogu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun on charges of intentional homicide.
'The Hefei People's Procuratorate on July 26,  2012, submitted an indictment to the Hefei Intermediate People's Court, charging that the accused Bogu Kailai and her son Bo became involved in a dispute over economic interests with the victim, Neil Heywood.
'Bogu Kailai believed that Neil Heywood had threatened the personal safety of her son Bo, and decided to kill him. She then arranged for the co-accused Zhang Xiaojun - an employee of the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee office - to invite and accompany Heywood from Beijing to Chongqing.
'On the evening of November 13, 2011, Bogu Kailai went to Heywood when he was staying in Room 1605 at Building No 16 of the Nanshan Lijing Holiday Hotel, and drank alcoholic drinks and tea with him.
'After Heywood became intoxicated, vomited and asked for a drink of water, she poured a poison into his mouth that had been prepared beforehand, and that she had given to Zhang Xiaojun to bring along, causing Heywood's death.
'The Hefei People's Procuratorate believes that the accused Bogu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun used brutal means to commit murder, and the facts of the crime are clear and backed by ample evidence.
'Their actions violated Article 232 of the Criminal Code of the People's Republic of China, and they should be prosecuted for the crime of intentional homicide.
'This case involved a joint offence, with Bogu Kailai as the principal offender and Zhang Xiaojun as the accessory.
'In court, the investigating body put forward relevant evidence, appraised witnesses, and lawyers spoke separately in defence of Bogu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun.
'The legal representative of the family of victim Neil Heywood participated in the hearing and issued an opinion, and more than 140 people - including, friends and relatives of the defendants Bogu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun and victim Neil Heywood, British consulate officials, journalists, representatives from the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Consultative Conference and citizens - were in attendance.'