Hua Yu Feng armed himself with a large kitchen knife and waited near the Bray home of his former girlfriend, Xiang Yi Wang, known as Linda. He stabbed the 21-year-old seven times, went home and slept, then travelled to Belfast. A Central Criminal Court jury acquitted him of murder but convicted him of manslaughter on provocation. The judge placed the killing at the top end of manslaughter and imposed ten years.

7 woundsDeep stab wounds to Wang's trunk.
10 yearsSentence, backdated almost two years.
€990,720Gross nominal ten-year prison-space benchmark.

He collected a knife and waited

Feng and Wang had been in a relationship for about 18 months, but they were estranged by July 2003. Contemporary court reports said Wang had begun seeing another man. On 3 July, Feng repeatedly telephoned her. After drinking in a bar, he returned home, retrieved a large kitchen knife and waited for up to an hour and a half near her Woodbrook Glen home.

Wang returned at about 1am on 4 July. The precise circumstances in which she came to be in a nearby wooded or garden area were not established in the reports. What was established was the violence: seven deep and penetrating stab wounds to her trunk, together with neck compression. The State Pathologist attributed death to haemorrhage, shock and breathing difficulties caused by the stab wounds.

He went home, slept and travelled north

Feng made two attempts to telephone emergency services, but the calls were not understood. He then went home and slept. Later that day he took a train to Belfast, where he attempted suicide at a youth hostel. With a friend's help, he returned to Dublin after leaving hospital and surrendered at Bray Garda station on 13 July. He had no previous convictions and cooperated with the investigation.

The sequence is documented without embellishment: a knife was selected in advance; Feng waited near the victim's home; Wang was stabbed seven times; and Feng left the jurisdiction before returning voluntarily.

The verdict was manslaughter, not murder

Feng pleaded guilty to manslaughter but not guilty to murder. The State did not accept the plea, so the murder charge went before a Central Criminal Court jury in a ten-day trial. On 11 February 2005, the jury unanimously found him not guilty of murder and guilty of manslaughter on the basis of provocation.

That distinction is essential. Feng was not convicted of murder, and this file does not relabel the verdict. Contemporary reports described the defence case as a “crime of passion”; that was courtroom language, not an excuse for the killing. The prosecution had urged jurors to reject manslaughter, arguing that repeatedly stabbing someone made death or serious injury a natural and probable consequence.

Ten years, backdated to custody

On 1 July 2005, Mr Justice Paul Butler sentenced Feng to ten years' imprisonment for manslaughter. The sentence was backdated to 14 July 2003, crediting almost two years already spent in custody. The judge called the killing horrendous, described Wang as entirely innocent, female and defenceless, and said the offence was at the top end of manslaughter.

Mitigation included Feng's lack of previous convictions, cooperation, surrender, remorse and the isolation of serving a sentence as a foreign national. The court also heard concern about anger management and the need for therapy.

Wang's family rejected the justice delivered

Wang was a talented musician and qualified piano teacher. Her parents travelled from China for the trial. Her father told the court that the family considered the manslaughter verdict unfair and described the devastation caused by sending their only child to Ireland and receiving her ashes.

Women’s Aid includes Xiang Yi Wang in its national Femicide Watch. That later record does not change the criminal verdict; it records her violent death in the broader history of women killed in Ireland.

Nationality and immigration limits

Contemporary court reports identify Feng as Chinese and originally from Fuxing City, China. They state that he had been in Ireland since 2000, was enrolled at an English-language school and worked as a cleaner at the time of the offence. An initial District Court report also described him as a Chinese national.

The reviewed sources do not establish the immigration permission under which he entered or remained, any asylum claim, any deportation order, his release date or whether he later left Ireland. None is inferred.

Chronology

  • 2000: Contemporary reports say Feng came to Ireland.
  • 3 July 2003: After repeatedly calling Wang and drinking, he retrieves a kitchen knife and waits near her home.
  • 4 July 2003: Wang is stabbed seven times and dies in Bray; Feng later travels to Belfast.
  • 13–14 July 2003: He returns, surrenders and enters custody; the sentence was later backdated to 14 July.
  • 11 February 2005: A jury acquits him of murder and convicts him of manslaughter on provocation.
  • 1 July 2005: The Central Criminal Court imposes ten years, backdated by almost two years.

Public-cost boundary

Applying the Irish Prison Service’s 2024 average of €99,072 per available staffed prison space to the ten-year sentence produces a €990,720 gross nominal face-value benchmark.

This is not an invoice, audited marginal expenditure or proof of time actually served. Crucially, the ten-year sentence was backdated to 14 July 2003, almost two years before it was imposed. A simple eight-year approximation for the unexpired portion at sentencing would be €792,576, but even that is not a served-days calculation. Remission, release date and sentence-administration details were not established. Garda, prosecution, court, legal-aid, medical, victim-support and post-release costs are unquantified and excluded.

Questions left by the public record

  1. What immigration permission did Feng hold between his reported 2000 arrival and the killing?
  2. How much of the ten-year sentence did he actually serve after backdating and remission?
  3. What rehabilitative or anger-management work was completed in custody?
  4. Was his immigration position reviewed before release?
  5. Did the State record his eventual release, departure or continued residence?

Sources

Record checked: 1 August 2026. The manslaughter verdict is preserved; the murder acquittal, sentence backdating and unknown immigration outcome are stated expressly.