Niece Mengmei Leng’s plea before being murdered by her uncle Derek Barrett revealed in chilling court documents

The horrific final moments of a woman brutally murdered and raped by her uncle have been revealed in court documents. WARNING: Confronting

WARNING: Confronting

The grandmother of a Chinese woman who was brutally raped and murdered by her uncle before her body was dumped in a blowhole was so overcome with grief that she died suddenly, court documents have revealed.

Derek Barrett, 32, is facing having more years piled onto his 46-year jail sentence for the murder of Mengmei Leng in April 2016 after a freak discovery of his secret recording of the vile sexual assault.

Barrett was in 2017 sentenced for stabbing the Chinese national and student 31 times inside the Campsie unit he shared with her aunt before disposing of her body in a blowhole at Snapper Point on the Central Coast.

However he was never charged with her sexual assault until late last year when an elderly woman was found in possession of a USB device which contained pictures and videos of Barrett raping Ms Leng shortly before her murder.

Mengmei Leng was killed by her uncle Derek Barrett and her body dumped in a blowhole on the Central Coast.

Police say they have no idea how the woman – who is housebound and suffers from dementia – came to be in possession of the USB.

In a victim impact statement which was tendered to the court, Ms Leng’s mother Mei Zhang revealed the depth of her family’s agony.

“In April 2016, the death of Mengmei had brought great pain to my whole family and I, a single mum trying to support her daughter who is an international student in Sydney,” Ms Zhang said.

“My healthy mother was in such grief that she too passed away, not long after receiving the news of Mengmei’s death.

“This double tragedy dealt such heavy blows to my family that we are still in irrevocable suffering.”

Derek Barrett is led into the Supreme Court in 2017. Picture: John Grainger

While Barrett has appealed against the severity of his murder sentence, he is at the same time facing the prospect of having years added onto his sentence for Ms Leng’s sexual assault.

He this week in the Supreme Court pleaded guilty to 17 offences, including multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault and indecent assault.

And Ms Zhang urged Justice Helen Wilson to imprison Barrett for the rest of his life.

She told of the moment she was informed by NSW Police that her daughter had been “degradingly raped, agonisingly tortured” and how a “a wave of faint immediately washed over”.

“As a mother, I hope you, most respectful Judge, will sentence this vicious rapist, malicious torturer and cold-hearted murderer, to life imprisonment,” Ms Zhang said.

When the USB drive was discovered, police were able to identify Barrett and match several photos to those which he deleted from his phone.

The nine videos – which run for about an hour – depict Barrett detaining Ms Leng in her bedroom, binding her hands with duct tape and gagging her before sexually assaulting her.

The disturbing details of the rape are detailed in court documents tendered to the court this week.

According to the statement of agreed facts, Barrett placed two cameras inside Ms Leng’s bedroom to capture her rape from different angles.

And while she was naked and bound, he can be seen using his mobile phone to take photos of her face and genitalia.

Murder victim Mengmei Leng. Picture: Instagram

Her final desperate moments are recorded on the footage including her pleas for him to stop.

“The victim asks the offender what he is doing before they both go into the room,” the court documents state.

“The victim ends up on the bed. The recording device falls over due to the movement of the victim on the bed.

“The rest of the 13 minutes recording is audio only. The victim is initially remonstrating with the offender saying ‘You crazy, what are you doing?’ and ‘You can’t do this to me’.”

Barrett will be sentenced in February 2021.

Originally published as Niece Mengmei Leng’s plea before being murdered by her uncle Derek Barrett revealed in chilling court documents