Teenage murderer will serve six years behind bars for killing doctor
A teenager who admitted to the shooting murder of a Brisbane doctor at his own home, will serve only six years behind bars because he was sentenced as a juvenile.
QLD News
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A TEENAGER who fatally shot a Brisbane doctor in his home garage last year has been sentenced to 10 years in jail - the maximum murder sentence for a juvenile.
The teen, who in July pleaded guilty to the “callous and cowardly’’ murder of Dr Luping Zeng, 56, of MacGregor, will be released on parole in 2025, after he has served six years.
Dr Zeng, a skin cancer specialist, was shot in the abdomen by the teen, who fired a shotgun as the doctor was coming down stairs inside the garage of his MacGregor home late on April 15, last year.
The teenager, then 17, and two others had gone to Dr Zeng’s home, in a stolen car, and were attempting to steal his car, after the hardworking doctor arrived home late from work, a court heard.
Crown prosecutor Sam Bain told the Supreme Court just before he was shot, Dr Zeng called out to his wife, in Mandarin: “Wei Hong, call police. Somebody has a gun in hand’’.
Mr Bain said Mrs Zeng saw her husband standing at the bottom of three steps in the garage and someone with something black over his face, holding something long.
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As she was calling triple-0, Mrs Zeng heard a single gun shot and when she returned to the garage she saw her husband on the ground, with a gunshot wound to his abdomen.
Mrs Zeng and one of her two daughters tried to assist Dr Zeng, as the teenager and the two others ran off.
Dr Zeng died on arrival at the Princess Alexandra hospital early on April 16, last year.
The court heard Dr Zeng had grabbed a meat cleaver, but he was not in striking distance of the teenager before he was shot.
Mr Bain said 165 pellets were found in Dr Zeng’s body.
The prosecutor described the teenage shooter’s actions as “cowardly, callous and senseless’’ and said it was a premeditated robbery attempt, after the 17-year-old obtained the shotgun.
The teen was arrested three days after the murder, and in an interview with police he said he had been on drugs and had not slept for days and was nervous when he shot Dr Zeng.
The teenager, now 19, pleaded guilty to the murder on July 15, when Mrs Zeng, also a doctor, and the couple’s two daughters were present in the Supreme Court in Brisbane.
He was sentenced today as a juvenile, because he was aged 17 and eight months at the time of the offence.
A sentence longer than 10 years can only be imposed for a juvenile who pleads guilty to murder if the crime is violent and considered heinous.
Both the prosecutor and the judge did not consider the murder to be heinous, when compared with other murder cases.
Two co-accused, aged 19 and 20 at the time, have been charged over the murder and are yet to face trial in the Supreme Court.
Dr Zeng, who lived in the MacGregor home with his wife and two daughters, worked at Waterford 7-Day Medical Centre and Skin Cancer Clinic.
He and his wife, Wei Hong Zeng, managed the centre together, but after her husband was killed she was unable to work and sold the practice, the court heard.
Justice Ann Lyons said Dr Zeng had been perfectly entitled to defend himself and his family in his home, by legally wielding a meat cleaver, and there was no justification for the shooting.
Justice Lyons said the teenager callously left the scene, when he must have known there was a real possibility that Dr Zeng was mortally wounded.
“You clearly took the life of a good and honourable man who did great service to the community and who was a great support to his family,’’ Justice Lyons told the teen.
She sentenced the teenager to 10 years’ jail, but took into account the 574 days he had spent in custody and ordered he serve 60 per cent of the sentence, with release on parole on April 17, 2025.
‘ALMOST DESTROYED’
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Mrs Zeng said the teenage killer had almost destroyed her family and deprived the community of a much needed medical specialist.
She said she and her daughters had been at home when Dr Zeng was killed, and they heard the fatal gunshot.
“It is a sound that will forever be in our heads,’’ Mrs Zeng said.
Mrs Zeng described her husband of 20 years as a “gentle, kind and generous man’’, her “rock’’ and her “passion’’ .
Mrs Zeng, also a doctor, said the small and delicate man had mildly confronted the intruders and there was no good reason for him to be killed.
The impact on me, our daughters and wider family has been life changing,’’ she said.
“I’ve been sentenced to a life without my soul mate.’’
Mrs Zeng said she and her husband had come to Australia from China for a better life, settling in a peaceful suburb and had wanted to serve the community.
“We now live with pain, stress, anxiety and fear,’’ Mrs Zeng said of the effect of her husband’s death on the family.
Dr Zeng was a hard worker, who put the care of his patients before his own, and often worked late at night, as he did on April 15, last year, his wife said.
Mrs Zeng said she could no longer work, as she suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and was “utterly bereft’’ and the family had suffered financially.
Her elder daughter had deferred her medical studies and her younger daughter might have to change schools if they could not afford school fees.
In a victim impact statement, three of Dr Zeng’s brothers in China said they had been unable to tell their frail mother, 90, that Luping was dead.
Instead one of the brothers pretended to be Luping in regular Saturday night calls to their mother.
“The bullet that killed Luping sent us all into a dark pit,’’ the brothers said.
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