Gu Kailai admits murdering Neil Heywood due to a mental breakdown

Gu Kailai, wife of disgraced top politician Bo Xilai, has admitted murdering British businessman Neil Heywood and blamed her actions on a mental breakdown, Chinese state media report.

The Xinhua news agency reports Gu Kailai has apologized for the “tragedy”.

She said she would “accept and calmly face any sentence”, the agency added.

Gu Kailai was charged with the murder of Neil Heywood, who was found dead in November 2011, in a one-day trial on Thursday.

The prosecution alleged Gu kailai and her son Bo Guagua fell out with Neil Heywood over “economic interests” and that Gu Kailai was worried about “Neil Heywood’s threat to her son’s personal security”.

The Xinhua report said that Gu Kailai had addressed the court towards the end of its session, and said: “Those few days last November, when I saw how my son was in danger, I suffered a nervous breakdown. A tragedy happened because of me”.

Earlier on Friday, four senior police officers admitted covering up evidence linking Gu Kailai to the murder, a court official said.

The dates for the verdicts in both trials are yet to be announced.

The case appears to have ended the career of Chongqing’s ex-leader Bo Xilai, who had been seen as a likely candidate for a top job in the leadership transition due later this year.

Seven members of the nine-strong politburo Standing Committee are due to retire, paving the way for a new generation of leaders.

But former high-flier Bo Xilai, a populist and an ambitious politician, has not been seen in public since the investigation into his wife was announced.