Jealous chef beat petite heiress to death in 7 hour attack
AN heiress in line to inherit her family’s billion-pound fortune was murdered by a jealous pub chef she met online.
During a 16-month relationship, 24-year-old Xixi Bi used her wealth to lavish Jordan Matthews with gifts and trips abroad after they met on the dating website Plenty of Fish.
But ‘jealous and obsessive’ Matthews, also 24, who claimed to be a karate black belt, began hitting her regularly and calling her ‘worthless’. When he saw a message from the dating app Tinder on her phone, he gave her a ‘relentless and remorseless’ beating for seven hours.
Miss Bi, who had a master’s degree in international business from Cardiff Metropolitan University, was left with 41 injuries. She suffered severe bruising and several of her bones were broken, including her jaw and ribs.
She died in hospital a few hours later following a cardiac arrest. Doctors found she also had healing fractures, allegedly from earlier attacks. The court heard a weapon similar to a steel rod was used to kill her. Miss Bi met
‘She must have been in great pain’
Matthews in April 2015 and they moved into an apartment in Cardiff soon after. They later lived in France so Miss Bi could improve her language skills, moving back to the Welsh capital months later.
On the day before she was killed, Miss Bi, who weighed just 7st 9lb, arrived back in Cardiff at midnight from a trip to London and was picked up by Matthews, who took her home and attacked her. He called 999 when she collapsed from her injuries at 8.30am.
During a ten- day trial at Cardiff Crown Court, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denied murder. However, he was jailed for life, with a minimum sentence of 18 years.
Prosecutor Paul Lewis QC said neighbours heard Miss Bi crying on the night she was killed by Matthews, adding: ‘ He was manipulative and he was possessive. She was apologetic and even subservient. She lost weight, she withdrawn and submissive.
‘Matthews beat Miss Bi to death in her own home in a vicious, sustained and prolonged attack. She must have been in great physical pain for some hours before her death.’ Judge Mrs Justice Nicola Davies said: ‘Xixi Bi was a generous and loving young woman. When you met you were unemployed. Xixi provided you with a home, clothing, she bought a car for you. You took what she gave.
‘Her friends saw the change in Xixi. She became quieter, thinner, was not making an effort with her appearance, would not go out as much. You gave increasingly implausible reasons to explain away such damaging evidence.
She added: ‘You lied and lied to attempt to exculpate yourself from the overwhelming evidence which was that during the early hours of August 19, 2016, you relentlessly and remorselessly inflicted physical injury upon a defenceless young woman.’ Miss Bi, who spoke four languages, moved from China to Oxford when she was 15 for her education.
Her father is thought to be a transport mogul in the food indus- try, and Miss Bi was expected to take over the family firm in Nanjing, eastern China.
In a statement, her brother Zexun said: ‘The heart has been ripped out of our family.’