China executes father and daughter over McDonald's cult murder

A father and daughter have been executed after being charged with the murder of a woman in a McDonald's restaurant in Shandong , eastern China.

The pair killed Wu Shuoyan, 35, after she refused to become a member of the Church of Almighty God, a cult the two killers belonged to, AP reported.

Zhang Lidong and his daughter Zhang Fan were executed after the Shandong Yantai Intermediate People's Court announced the death sentence, adding that the pair had "committed murder and used a cult to intentionally break the law".

The two were convicted along with three other women, whose sentences ranged from seven years in jail to life imprisonment.

Wu was called an "evil spirit" and a "demon" for refusing to give her phone number to the cult recruiters at the fast-food restaurant, prosecutors said.

She was then beaten to death with a mop.

At the time of the incident in May 2014, the restaurant was crowded with people who did not intervene, but fled the building and continued to watch the beating through the windows.

In an interview after the murder, Zhang showed no regret for the killing.

He said: "I beat her with all my might and stamped on her too. She was a demon. We had to destroy her."

Members of the Church of Almighty God, founded in 1990 by Zhao Weishan, believe that God was reincarnated into a woman named Yang Xiangbin.

The cult was banned in China, where it was deemed a terrorist organisation.