Chinese report: Neil Heywood murder 'evidence is irrefutable and substantial'

More details are emerging about the investigation into the murder of the British businessman Neil Heywood. Today it was announced by the Chinese state agency that Gu Kailai, wife of disgraced Party Boss Bo Xilai, and a family employee Zhang Xiaojun, have been charged with the murder of Mr Heywood in the city of Chongqing last November.

The report from Xinhua, the official news agency, contains what it calls "investigation results" which claim that Gu Kailai and her son Bo Gua Gua, who went to school at Harrow and then Oxford University, had fallen out with Neil Heywood who had a been a long standing family friend, over 'economic interests'.

"Worrying about Neil Heywood's threat to her son's personal security, Gu Kailai along with Zhang Xiaojun...poisoned Neil Heywood to death" according to the official news report.

In the Chinese the words used suggest that Gu Kailai must have physically administered the poison.

The report ends by saying: "The facts of the two defendants crime are clear, and the evidence is irrefutable and substantial."

A trial date is yet to be decided.