Pumpkin's father faces court

• April 24, 2009 - 9:20AM

A New Zealand man accused of murdering his wife in Auckland and abandoning his infant daughter in Melbourne has faced court in preparation for his trial.

Nai Yin Xue, 54, is accused of strangling his 27-year-old wife, An An Liu, in Auckland in September 2007 before fleeing to Melbourne and dumping his three-year-old daughter at Southern Cross railway station.

Qian Xun Xue, nicknamed Pumpkin, was found wandering the station alone after her father fled to the United States.

Xue, dressed in a crumpled white shirt and looking thinner than he once was, appeared in Auckland's High Court today to hear discussions on preparations for his case, set down to start in early June.

He listened through an interpreter while crown prosecutor Aaron Perkins told the court evidence would be presented from "a very large number" of witnesses in three countries - New Zealand, Australia and the United States.

Justice Hugh Williams adjourned the case until May 14 to discuss which witnesses would be called and how their evidence would be heard.

Xue was on the run in the United States for more than four months before he was apprehended in February 2008 and returned to New Zealand.

He pleaded not guilty to the murder.

His applications for bail have been denied as the court judged him a serious flight risk.

Pumpkin now lives in China with her grandmother.