Ding Family Murders: 'Anxiang Du deserves what he receives'

It was the day the rest of the world was gripped by the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, but in a leafy suburb of Northampton, a truly horrific crime was being committed.

Today the man who repeatedly stabbed a family of four was found guilty of murder in what was described in court as a cold-blooded massacre.

The Dings' relatives from China heard the fate of the man who butchered their family and sat through two weeks of at times horrific evidence.

A father himself, Anxiang Du knew the Dings well: Jeff, his wife Helen, 18 year old Xing, and Alice, who was 12. Normal, hardworking people - destroyed in a frenzied attack that may have lasted just minutes.

Their relatives have spent the past two and a half years trying to understand how a man who had once been friends with Jeff and Helen Ding could slaughter them and their children.

The defence said when he killed them Du was not in his right mind. That depressed, and on the edge, he had temporarily lost control. But the jury agreed with the prosecution, and the police that he'd had a careful plan - carried out with ruthless efficiency. They found him guilty of four counts of murder.

It was a plan that then took Anxiang Du across Europe by bus. Eventually he was caught hiding in Morocco - after a manhunt of more than year.

During that time the Dings and the police must have doubted he would ever be caught. Finally they have justice - tomorrow they will be back in court to hear him sentenced for his horrific crimes.

Click above to watch Olivia Paterson's report into the background of the murders.