It was the back of the restaurant – beyond the fry stand, the grease-slicked counter, the droves of gawking patrons — where the murder happened. The restaurant was a McDonald's. It was a Wednesday evening. The murderers, who bludgeoned the woman to death with chairs and a mop, belonged to a cult described as China's "most radical". Called the Church of the Almighty God, it claims to have a million followers, aggressively promotes doomsday scenarios, wants to destroy the Chinese Communist Party and believes Jesus Christ has returned — as a Chinese woman.

But it was the McDonald's murder that has consumed a Chinese court's attention over the last two months. Days ago, two church members were convicted and sentenced to death for a killing that, even by the standards of the Church of the Almighty God, was peculiar and brutal.

According to prosecutors, five members tried to recruit a woman patronising the McDonald's in question, and asked for her phone number. When she refused, they beat her to death. Zhang Lidong, who arrived that night riding a luxury Porsch Cayenne car, never offered much explanation. "You could just tell she was not a good person," he said in a state television interview, describing the 35-year-old mother. "She was a demon, the evil spirit. We had to beat her to death."

The trial, which brought greater attention to the Christian cult without elucidating its murkier aspects, marked another clash in a decades-long feud between the Chinese authorities and the church. The Chinese have long been suspicious of religious organisations, and have been known to crack down, imprison or even execute dissidents with little provocation.