Father, daughter from Chinese cult executed for beating woman to death

A father and daughter who belonged to a Chinese cult have been executed for beating a woman to death with an iron bar at a McDonald’s restaurant as customers watched.

Zhang Fan, 29, and Zhang Lidong, 54, were among five members of the banned Quannengshen cult convicted of attacking the woman after she reportedly rebuffed their attempts to recruit her.

The pair ‘were put to death by the Intermediate People’s Court of Yantai city’, China’s official news agency Xinhua said.

China uses both lethal injection and shooting for executions, but the method was not specified.

State media gave the executions prominent coverage on Monday, broadcasting CCTV showing the Zhangs in court, as well as replaying a film of the attack.

Shortly after the brutal attack in May last year, a three-minute video circulated online showing the incident at a McDonald’s in Zhaoyuan, in China’s Shandong province.

At the time, the clip caused uproar as it showed customers watch while the woman screamed in agony as she was beaten to death. No-one was reported to have tried to help her.

The footage, apparently shot on a mobile phone, only included a fraction of a second showing the person thought to be the victim, only known as Miss Wu.

Reports said the victim was having dinner at the fast food restaurant when a man, identified as Mr Zhang, asked for her phone number.

When she refused, the violence unfolded over a brief 20-minute period - and Zhang used an iron bar to beat Miss Wu to death right in the middle of the restaurant.

Chinese media reported Zhang’s friends joined in and also beat Miss Wu, kicking her in the head as she lay on the ground in a pool of her own blood.

They then proceeded to use an iron-handled mop to strike her in the head and continued to do so until the handle broke.

Miss Wu, 37, who was a mother, died at the scene.

Three others convicted over the attack -- including another daughter of Zhang Lidong’s - were given prison sentences, ranging from seven years to life, for offences including ‘undermining law enforcement using heresy’.

In the wake of the killing, state media said 1,000 Quannengshen members had been arrested including ‘high-level organisers and backbone members’.