SA court hears alleged murderer Wei Li went to China to forget about killing mother

ACCUSED murderer Wei Li has told a Supreme Court jury he “spent months in China forgetting about” killing his mother at their Burnside home. | See the video

ACCUSED murderer Wei Li has told a Supreme Court jury he “spent months in China forgetting about” killing his mother at their Burnside home.

Under cross-examination on Thursday, Li said he had little to no recollection of the period between the death of his mother, Emma Tien, and his arrival in China.

“Those days after what happened, pretty much until I got to China, was pretty much close to a blank,” he said.

“I was blind drunk, I honestly don’t recall ... I spent months in China forgetting about what happened.”

Li, 22, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Tien at their Burnside home in March 2011 but has admitted she died by his hand.

Prosecutors have alleged the killing was premeditated, as evidenced by Google searches for stabbing and police avoidance techniques.

Wei Li in court. Art: Tim Ide.

The court has also heard Li bought a one-way ticket to Singapore after the incident, and did not return to Australia for three years.

On Wednesday, Li told jurors he had no intention to harm Ms Tien and only wanted to restrain her when she “came at” him “yelling and screaming” with a metal bar.

He claims she attacked him because he was practising martial arts instead of piano — an escalation of the “daily beatings” he suffered at her hands.

Li also told the jury his mother would beat him if he did not achieve straight A grades at school.

Continuing his evidence on Thursday, Li said he “wasn’t in a right state of mind” the day after Ms Tien’s death.

Wei Li, inset, and the site of the alleged murder at Burnside.

“I tried to go somewhere, to leave the city ... I think I was trying to crash the car in the opposite direction on the freeway,” he said.

Li said he had driven toward Handorf but did not arrive due to “a malfunction” in his car.

The trial, before Justice Trish Kelly and a jury of six men and six women, continues.