http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/police-fear-lin-murder-accused-will-flee-20121221-2bqy6.html
Police fear the man accused of killing five members of the Lin family will flee to China, where he has significant financial and family connections, if he is granted bail, a court has heard.
The Director of Public Prosecutions is appealing Magistrate John Andrews’ decision to grant bail to Lian Bin ‘‘Robert’’ Xie, who he committed to stand trial over the alleged murders.
In the Central Local Court on Thursday, Mr Andrews said the Crown case against Xie had been weakened ‘‘substantially’’ in DNA evidence about a spot of blood found on Xie’s garage floor, heard during the committal proceedings.
"In my view, the case falls well short of being a strong Crown case,’’ Mr Andrews said.
But Senior Crown Prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC, for the DPP, told the bail appeal hearing in the Supreme Court of NSW on Friday Mr Andrews’ conclusion about the case was wrong.
‘‘If your honour considers all the DNA evidence … the only real conclusion is that there are, deposited on the accused’s floor, the blood of at least four of these victims including at least one of the females,’’ Mr Tedeschi told Justice Stephen Rothman.
‘‘The learned magistrate’s conclusion about the strength of the crown case was based on two incorrect conclusions about the DNA evidence.’’
Mr Tedeschi said there was evidence of large sums of money in China, possibly managed by Xie and his sister.
‘‘The significance of that is the sister has offered $200,000 of her own money.
‘‘We submit that is a hollow offer when she has control of large sums of money that belong to him or them both.
‘‘If he fled ... she would be able to reimburse herself from those sums of money.’’
The officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Sergeant Joseph Maree, said there was evidence Xie had financial dealings in China.
‘‘It’s my belief that if he did decide to leave this jurisdiction, he could do so quite easily and he’d be able to use those connections in China,’’ he said.
Mr Tedeschi said much of Xie’s family was in China, strengthening that connection.
He said that Justice Derek Price had refused Xie’s application for bail in April.
‘‘Since then the only real change is the accused is now much more a risk of a conviction of these five murders than he was at that time because he’s since been committed for trial.’’
Justice Rothman reserved his decision on bail until Monday.
Xie, 48, is charged with murdering his brother-in-law, Min ‘‘Norman’’ Lin, 45, Mr Lin’s wife, Yun Li ‘‘Lily’’ Lin, 43, her sister, Yun Bin ‘‘Irene’’ Yin, 39, and two boys, aged nine and 12, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
Their bodies were found in a North Epping house, in Sydney’s northwest, on July 18, 2009.
