'I did it': Powerful Chinese 'mistress' accused of murdering British businessman 'confessed to police chief after poisoning'



Wang Lijun told American diplomats that Gu Kailai said 'I did it' three times



He fled Chongqing and job as city police chief in February 'fearing his life'



Claims Neil Heywood, 41, was force fed cyanide in 'gruesome' poisoing



Mrs Gu's son Bo Guagua hits out against playboy claims while in hiding



The powerful alleged mistress of murdered British businessman Neil Heywood confessed ‘I did it’ to a former Chinese police chief, it was claimed today.

Gu Kilai, the wife of the former Communist party boss of Chongqing, is said to have told Wang Lijun she was in the hotel room during the ‘gruesome’ poisoning, according to American diplomats.

Mr Wang, who ran the city’s police force fled there in February, apparently in fear of his life, to the U.S. consulate in nearby Chengdu.

Accused: Gu Kailai is said to have confessed to and Neil Heywood are said to had an affair due to her husband's 'lack of passion'



He is said to have told diplomats that fixer Mr Heywood, 41, was held down in a Chongqing hotel room in November and forced to drink cyanide.

Afterwards, Mrs Gu – the wife of former rising star Bo Xilai, who has been has been stripped of all his roles within the party - allegedly confessed to the crime.

‘Gu said ”I did it” three times to Wang,’ a diplomatic source told The Daily Telegraph.

‘It was a gruesome scene. Heywood spat the cyanide out and they had to give him more.’

Mr Wang reportedly gave an almost identical account to the Chinese authorities after he left and these accounts have spread in official circles within and outside China.

The ease of access to rumours spreading on the internet in China has prompted speculation that the Communist Party was trying to smear Mr Bo.

Claims: Former Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun, fled the city in February, is said to have revealed to American diplomats that Mrs Gu confessed 'I did it' three times

Questions: Chinese officials are investigating whether Mr Heywood was poisoned with cyanide after falling out with Mr Bo (right) and his wife Gu Kailai (left)

Allegations last week claimed that Mr Heywood had hidden details of Bo Xilai's financial dealings with his lawyers in Britain

The latest claims about Mrs Gu came as the couple’s son publicly commented for the first time since his mother was named as prime suspect in the case.

Bo Guagua, who is studying at Harvard after graduating from Oxford, denied rumours about his perceived playboy lifestyle but declined to comment on the probe.

In a statement published by the Ivy League university’s student newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, he said he felt compelled to provide ‘an account of the facts’ in response to speculation about his private life and family.

‘I am deeply concerned about the events surrounding my family, but I have no comments to make regarding the ongoing investigation,’ he said.

The 24-year-old, who is studying at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, is no longer at apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has not divulged his current location.

Bo Guagua has been the subject of intense media scrutiny over his purported extravagant lifestyle as a student, including a love for luxury cars.

In the statement, he wrote: ‘I have never driven a Ferrari.’



Speaking out: Bo Guagua, Mr Bo and Mrs Gu's, son has publicly commented for the first time since his parents came under investigation to deny rumours about a hedonistic lifesyle he is said to have enjoyed at Oxford



Party boy: Bo Guagua embraces two young friends in a series of snaps posted on the internet

One of lads: Bo Guagua, 25, centre takes part in the kind of crude stunt with fellow students that is said to have heaped embarrassment upon his ambitious father

He also sought to dampen speculation about financial improprieties over his costly overseas tuition, explaining the fees had been covered by ‘scholarships earned independently, and my mother's generosity from the savings she earned from her years as a successful lawyer and writer’.

Mr Heywood, an Old Harrovian, had been a friend of the Bo family for a decade and before his death had been raising cash to build an £80million shopping centre dedicated to British goods.

Mrs Gu is alleged to have started an affair with him after she was denied ‘any normal passion’ from her husband, Wang Kang, a Chongqing scholar with contacts inside Mr Bo's circle, told The Times last week.

They are even said to have occasionally shared a Bournemouth apartment, which was registered to Mrs Gu, when he visited Britain.



Questions remain: It is thought that Mr Heywood was killed in one of the mountain-top hotel's £600-a-night villas, but details of his demise are sketchy

Suspicious: The reception area of the Nanshan Lijing Holiday Hotel in Chongqing, China, where British businessman Neil Heywood was found dead

An early theory put forward into Mr Heywood's death suggested he was killed after Mr Bo found out about the affair.

The businessman was said to have confided in a friend about the alleged affair with Mrs Gu, saying it had ‘left his life under threat’.

British friends said that last year he appeared nervous before travelling back to China, where he had lived since the late 1990s and had married a Chinese woman, Wang Lulu.

But, more recently, claims have emerged that Mr Heywood had quarrelled with Mrs Gu over an ‘economic matter’.