Two convicted of decapitating Waterloo woman

The body of 23 year old Xing Xing Xie was found decapitated in South Dock at Rotherhithe in April last year. Her hands had also been cut off.

Xing Xing's head was discovered by council workers six weeks later in a black bin liner in nearby Greenland Dock. Her hands have never been recovered.

The victim was a Chinese national who had been in England for five years and was living in a Chicheley Street flat at the time of her death.

Trach Lon Gian, 27 years old, of no fixed abode, and Noor Azura Mohd-Yusoff, 22 years old, of Walsall in the West Midlands, were found guilty on Friday of the murder of the student.

Gian was also found guilty of perverting the course of justice by disposing of her body. He received a life sentence to serve a minimum of 22 years for murder and five years for perverting the course of justice. The sentences will be served concurrently.

Mohd-Yusoff received a life sentence to serve a minimum of 15 years for murder.

"The brutality and savagery shown by Xing Xing's killers is something I have not come across before and beggars belief" said DCI Carl Mehta, who led the investigation.

"Xing Xing came from the Sichuan province of China, from a well respected academic family background. She came to the UK in 2002 to study and was a successful student at Liverpool University before coming to London to work. Her family have had to suffer the loss of a daughter many thousands of miles from home, in an unfamiliar city, and in the most harrowing and tragic circumstances.

"My sympathies are with them today. Nothing will bring back their daughter but I hope they are able to draw some comfort from the fact that her killers have now been brought to justice."