Cult leader imprisoned after 'divinity delusion' led to follower's death

“You should feel shame.” 

Those were the parting words a High Court judge left with an unrepentant Auckland cult leader today as he was handed a lengthy prison sentence for the killing of an elderly follower. 

Kaixiao Liu and his wife, Lanyue Xiao, were both found guilty at trial in June of kidnapping, manslaughter, attempting to pervert the course of justice and misconduct with the remains of 70-year-old Shulai Wang. Her body was dumped unceremoniously into a creek leading to Gulf Harbour, while the couple used their children as “camouflage”. 

“You were its ringleader,” Justice Mathew Downs told Liu today as the couple returned to the High Court at Auckland for sentencing. “You were callously indifferent to a fellow human being. Because of you, Ms Wang died a lonely, frightening death ... You display no remorse whatsoever.” 

The sect leader and his wife were arrested in June 2024 at Auckland Airport as they prepared to leave New Zealand for what was described as a short round-trip visit to China. But the investigation had begun three months earlier when a fisherman discovered Wang’s body wrapped in rubbish bags and floating in Gulf Harbour off the Whangaparāoa Peninsula. 

It would take months for police to identify Wang, a Chinese citizen who had overstayed her visa after arriving in New Zealand in August 2023. But the serial numbers on two rice bags filled with rocks that had been used to weigh Wang’s body down eventually led police to Liu and his family. 

While asking the courts for permanent name suppression, manslaughter defendant Kaixiao Liu was repeatedly posting about his legal issues on Chinese social media. 

Voluminous diary entries found inside their home, recorded sermons found on Liu’s laptop and, later, listening devices that police had hidden inside the house helped give authorities a fuller picture of what life was like for the defendants and for Wang. 

The victim was one of six women who had travelled from China to live with Liu and receive religious instruction. Prosecutors said today the members of the household had “a shared delusion in his divinity”. 

All of those in the household, including his wife and parents, would refer to Liu by a Mandarin term that was repeatedly translated to either “Lord” or “Master” – although it was pointed out that there is a different word for “God”, which wasn’t used – and they were expected to follow strict house rules. Those perceived as not adequately following house rules were ordered to repent. 

Wang, it appeared from diary entries, seemed to be singled out the most for perceived rules infractions after she had trouble keeping up with the younger members. She was denied meals and ordered to sleep in a tent outside the home, the defendants themselves noted. 

But her punishments took on a more sadistic tone, prosecutors suggested, after she tried to escape the gated compound on March 6, 2024. At that point, she was held against her will, resulting in the kidnapping charges. 

The body of Shulai Wang, 70, of China, was found by a fisherman in Auckland's Gulf Harbour. Photo / New Zealand Police 

In recordings recovered by police, Liu explained how Wang’s mouth was sealed with tape after she wouldn’t stop crying or screaming. If she continued to make noise, he instructed, a towel should be stuffed in her mouth and she should be put into a box or suitcase because it was more “fixed” and “soundproof”. He described the actions to followers as “justifiable defence”. She was held captive for an estimated 38 hours, the judge noted. 

Wang was found dead on the afternoon of March 7. After a household meeting in which Liu solicited advice from everybody, including children, on how to dispose of the body without alerting police, Wang was folded in half with tape, stuffed into the plastic bags then put in the boot of the Liu family van. The macabre package was then placed in a pram and wheeled to a footbridge over a muddy stream that drained into the ocean. The body was thrown from the bridge. 

Xiao, the sect leader’s wife, insisted during her closing address at trial that it was intended as a respectful “sea burial”, albeit with “well-intentioned ignorance” about New Zealand customs and norms regarding such matters. She also insisted that Wang had died either of natural causes or from a fall while trying to jump over a fence into a neighbour’s yard. 

That assertion was repeated at today’s sentencing – as Liu instructed his lawyer to request a sentence of home detention – but flatly rejected by the judge. 

“I am quite sure the facts are as I have outlined, given much of the evidence comes from your own mouth,” Justice Downs explained. “You unwittingly provided the best possible evidence of your offending.” 

He described Liu’s place in the “suffocatingly strict” household as “domination masquerading as religious instruction”. Liu could have showed some compassion, the judge added. 

“You did claim, after all, to be following Jesus,” he said. 

Justice Mathew Downs. Photo / Jason Oxenham 

At trial, the defendants insisted, despite strong discouragement from the court, on representing themselves. The couple took an opposite approach following their convictions and were represented in court today by two King’s Counsel. 

Both lawyers indicated they would be saving the bulk of their arguments for the appeals process. 

Ron Mansfield, KC, acting for Liu, said his client’s distrust in the legal process after his children were uplifted caused him to make choices at trial that he now regrets. 

“He is not a cult leader,” the lawyer said, suggesting instead that people followed Liu largely for his music career in China. 

The permanent resident, who moved to New Zealand in 2017 after living in the United States, “has loved his life in New Zealand”, Mansfield said, asking the judge for “compassion” in his sentence. 

Custody would be difficult for Liu, Mansfield said, noting that his client was hospitalised after he was attacked in prison shortly after his 2024 arrest. He described the death as a one-off occurrence. Liu never intends to have anyone outside his family live with him again, Mansfield said. 

Julie-Anne Kincade, KC, representing Xiao, noted that the wife was not the main offender, having “remained loyal and submissive to her husband”. She had turned to Christianity in high school after her parents separated and attended a Bible-based university, Kincade said. 

The judge agreed, to an extent. While she was not the ringleader, she was the second in command in the household, he said, noting that he observed the couple’s interactions during the trial. 

“I have seen you disagree with your husband,” he said. “I have seen you make decisions other than his. I’ve also seen him defer to you.” 

With her influence, Xiao could have stopped the offending before it escalated to Wang’s death, he surmised. 

Sect leader Kaixiao Liu (from left), his wife Lanyue Xiao, his father Jingui Liu and mother Xiuyun Li were all tried together in the High Court at Auckland following the death of 70-year-old Shulai Wang. Photos / Jason Dorday 

Crown prosecutor Henry Steele asked the judge for a 12-year starting point for Liu and 11 years for Xiao, noting that Liu’s “position of trust and responsibility was abused in the most egregious way”. 

He described the defendants’ “extreme reaction” to Wang as “deliberately cruel” and dangerous. 

“The court can readily infer that Ms Wang suffered terribly prior to her death,” he said. 

The judge ordered a starting point of 11 years for Liu and eight-and-a-half years for Xiao for the manslaughter convictions, before ordering uplifts for the other crimes and discounts for their time on bail, their prior good character and the impact the sentences will have on their six children. 

“What stands out is your callous indifference to Ms Wang and the other women who were living with you,” he said, recalling how Liu kept on display the black bedding used by Wang and a chair used to remove her body “as silent warnings to the other women who lived in the house”. 

He ordered an end sentence of 10 years and five months for Liu and seven years and 11 months for Xiao. Liu, he ordered, will need to serve at least half of the sentence before he can start to apply for parole. 

“As a 70-year-old overstayer dependent on you both, Ms Wang was vulnerable quite apart from her detainment and restraint,” Justice Downs said. “You both knew that.” 

The couple were joined at trial by Liu’s parents. His mother, Dr Xiuyun Li, was found guilty of kidnapping and his father, Jinghui Liu, was found guilty of misconduct with a corpse. 

They are set to be sentenced in a separate hearing later this year. 

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.