Cruise killer Daniel Belling’s neighbors ‘totally shocked’ after wife’s murder, while Dubliner lives ‘carefree’

HORRIFIED neighbors of cruise murder rapper husband Daniel Belling have spoken of their “shock” following his murder conviction.

The Dublin-based computer programmer was sentenced to 26 years in prison in Italy after being found guilty of murder following a lengthy police investigation into the infamous case.

Belling was sentenced in absentia last week after being found guilty in an Italian court of murdering his Chinese wife Xing Lei Li, 38, on a cruise ship and “destroying” her body.

Irish resident Xing Li disappeared two days after boarding the MSC Magnifica in the Italian port of Civitavecchia on February 9, 2017 for a ten-day vacation with her husband Belling and their two young children.

The crew members noticed that Xing Li was missing when they took stock.

Police searching for the mother-of-two have launched an investigation into whether she was murdered and her remains thrown overboard by her husband.

Cruise ship murder suspect Belling, who denied murdering his missing wife, spent 14 months on remand in an Italian prison before being released and returning to Ireland in 2018.

The trial of the 49-year-old man finally began in absentia, with the Rome Assize Court accusing the computer scientist of throwing the body into the sea after locking it in a cart.

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

But while the murder case was underway against Belling in Italy, neighbors at his apartment in Coolock in Dublin say the convicted murderer is living “carefree” in Ireland.

And reacting to news of the murder conviction, a shocked local resident told the Irish Sun: “I’m totally shocked. You don’t expect a killer to live near you.

Stunned neighbors revealed Belling was spotted at his Dublin apartment recently.

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

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

‘Very sad’

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

Belling’s wife, Xing Li, disappeared two days after boarding the MSC Magnifica in the Italian port of Civitavecchia on February 9, 2017 for a ten-day vacation with her husband and their two young children.

The crew members noticed that Xing Li was missing when they took stock.

Police searching for the mother of two arrested Belling at Rome’s Ciampino airport over his wife’s disappearance.

Murder denied

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

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

The indictment accused the husband of having “caused the death of his wife, who was traveling with him and his two young children and, in order to obtain impunity for the crime which had just been committed, he ‘is rid of the corpse, by hiding it or causing its destruction’.

Sentence handed down

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

But the Rome court handed down a sentence of 26 years in prison.

After Thursday’s hearing, Belling’s lawyer, Luigi Conti, explained that his client was not in prison and was not even in Italy.

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