Cruise killer’s neighbours ‘shocked’ with wife murder rap as he lives ‘carefree’

HORRIFIED neighbours of cruise murder rap husband Daniel Belling have spoken of their “shock” following his slaying conviction.

The Dublin-based computer programmer has been sentenced to 26 years in prison in Italy after being convicted of murder following a long-running police probe into the infamous case.

Belling was sentenced in his absence last week after being convicted by an Italian court of murdering his Chinese wife Xing Lei Li, 38, on a cruise ship and the ‘destruction’ of her body.

Irish resident Xing Li vanished two days after she boarded the MSC Magnifica at the Italian port of Civitavecchia on February 9, 2017 for a ten-day holiday with husband Belling and their two young children.

Crew members noticed Xing Li was missing when they did a head count.

Cops searching for the mum-of-two launched a probe investigating whether she was murdered and her remains thrown overboard by her husband.

Cruise ship slaying suspect Belling, who denied murdering his missing wife, spent 14 months on remand in an Italian prison before he was released and returned to Ireland in 2018.

The 49-year-old’s trial eventually began in absentia, with the Court of Assizes of Rome accusing the IT worker of throwing the body into the sea after locking it in a trolley.

A Rome court handed down a 26-year jail sentence last week after Belling was convicted of murder.

But as the murder case was built against Belling in Italy, neighbours at his Coolock apartment in Dublin say the convicted killer has been living “carefree” in Ireland.

And reacting to news of the murder conviction, one reeling local told the Irish Sun: “I’m totally shocked. You don’t expect to have a killer living close to you.”

Stunned neighbours revealed Belling had been spotted at his Dublin apartment recently.

One said: “You would see him coming and going from the apartment.

“It is like nothing has happened. It is as if he doesn’t have a care in the world.”

‘Very sad’

Another neighbour told the Irish Sun: “It is very sad. I don’t want to say much because there are two children involved.”

Belling’s wife Xing Li vanished two days after she boarded the MSC Magnifica at the Italian port of Civitavecchia on February 9, 2017 for a ten-day holiday with her husband and their two young children.

Crew members noticed Xing Li was missing when they did a head count.

Cops searching for the mum-of-two arrested Belling at Rome’s Ciampino Airport over the disappearance of his wife.

Denied murder

The chief suspect, who denied murdering his missing wife, spent 14 months on remand in an Italian prison before he was released and returned to Ireland.

A trial was held in his absence and on Thursday it emerged Belling had been convicted by an Italian court of murdering his wife on a cruise ship.

The indictment accused the husband of “causing the death of his wife, who was travelling with him and two young children and in order to achieve impunity for the crime just committed, he disposed of the corpse, hiding it or otherwise causing its destruction”.

Sentence handed down

Prosecutor Francesco Basentini had requested a 24-year sentence for Belling, who is originally from Germany.

But the court in Rome handed down a 26 year jail term.

Following the hearing on Thursday, Belling’s lawyer Luigi Conti told how client was not in jail and wasn’t even in Italy.

Conti said: “He is not in Italy, he was not extradited.”