Accused murderer Wei Li hired male prostitute while preparing to leave Melbourne for China

ACCUSED murderer Wei Li has told a jury he has no memory of hiring a male prostitute in Melbourne as he prepared to leave Australia for China.

Accused killer can’t remember male prostitute

ACCUSED murderer Wei Li has told a jury he has no memory of hiring a male prostitute in Melbourne as he prepared to leave Australia for China.

Li, 23, has denied murdering his mother, Emma Mei Tran, at their Burnside home in March 2011, telling a jury he acted in self-defence.

The former high-achieving Prince Alfred College student flew to Melbourne three days before his mother’s body was discovered by a family friend.

At his Supreme Court trial during the week, a jury heard he spent a night with a friend before moving to an apartment, where he sent naked pictures to a male escort he found on the internet.

Security vision showed Li and the escort entering the apartment complex the night before he went to a Melbourne travel agent to buy an air ticket to Singapore.

Victorian detectives sent to the apartment by Major Crime detectives in Adelaide looking for Li found opened condom wrappers in a rubbish basket.

The detectives seized a laptop, which had been used to search for gay brothels, bars, saunas, rent boys, gay prostitutes and adult escorts in ­Melbourne.

Questioned for the first time about the prostitute under cross-examination, Li said he had no memory of meeting the male escort or using the laptop.

He also could not remember taking naked photographs of himself in the apartment, which had been emailed to the male escort.

Li repeatedly told the jury that he had been drinking heavily since the death of his mother and had no memory of what had happened.

He said he had no recollection of his movements after the death of his mother to the time he arrived in China — ­including how he got from Adelaide to Melbourne.

“I have spent months after what happened (trying) to ­forget about the whole thing — not just instances, the whole thing,” he said.

“Months I locked myself in a room and (tried) to move on and to live. I consciously tried to forget about the whole thing for months and months.

“Even without it (sic), as traumatic as that instance was, that time was, I do not have a clear memory of what happened.”

The trial has heard Li had a turbulent relationship with his strict mother, who demanded he achieve high academic results and become an accomplished musician.

Li has admitted fighting with his mother on the day she died, saying she attacked him because he was not practising the piano as she required each morning. He told the jury he had no recollection of exactly what happened, only that the struggle ended when he had his hands around her throat and she stopped moving.

Asked by prosecutor Jim Pearce, SC, if he had told his mother he was attracted to other males, Li said it had never been discussed between them.

The jury is expected to ­retire tomorrow to consider its verdict.