Accused triple-killer Kwang Kyung Yoo is a fake uni professor and taekwondo athlete

The alleged murder of a man, woman and child in Sydney’s northwest has been charged and will face court on Thursday.

The alleged killer of a man, woman and child in Sydney’s northwest is a fake university professor who forged his academic qualifications and lied about his Olympic taekwondo accomplishments.

Kwang Kyung Yoo, 49, who was arrested at Westmead Hospital on Tuesday, was on Wednesday night charged with three counts of murder.

Yoo will face a bedside hearing on Thursday at the hospital, where he still remains recovering from his injuries.

It comes as Yoo claimed he was an elite athlete who had competed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, won silver and bronze at various world cup events and a senior professor in exercise and sports science at Macquarie University.

But police allege Yoo is a married father-of-two and triple-killer who strangled Min Cho, 41, and a seven-year-old boy inside a back room at Lion’s Taekwondo and Martial Arts studio at North Parramatta on Monday night.

It is further alleged that once Yoo was confident the pair was dead, he stole Mrs Cho’s car from a nearby car park and drove it to her Baulkham Hills home where he stabbed to death her husband Steven Cho, 39, who was in the kitchen preparing dinner.

Kwang Kyung Yoo. Picture: Facebook

Blood-soaked and wounded from the fight police say a brave Mr Cho put up in his dying moments, Yoo then drove the white BMW 4WD to Westmead Hospital seeking treatment for his injuries and claiming he was randomly attacked in a supermarket car park.

Yoo, who was known to students as “Master Lion”, remained in hospital under police guard on Wednesday.

Yoo claims on social media to be a Senior Professor at Macquarie University, and applied to become a ‘Distinguished Senior Professor’ in the faculty of Exercise and Sports Science.

However Macquarie told The Daily Telegraph that the document appears to be “falsified”, and “there is no record” of Yoo ever being employed there.

The university said Distinguished Senior Professor and Senior Professor “are not titles that we use.”

Yoo also claims on his website to be currently studying a PhD in sports science at the University of Sydney.

Sydney Uni has told The Daily Telegraph they have “no record of that individual being a student or graduate.”

Victims Min and Steven Cho. Picture: Supplied

On his martial arts studio website Yoo boasts he won silver in the 2004 Taekwondo World Cup, gold in the 2002 Martial Arts World Championships and gold in the 1995 Army Taekwondo Championship.

All three events don’t exist by those names and were not held in those years, and there is no record of Yoo winning a medal in any of them.

Australian Taekwondo also denied Yoo was ever selected by Australia in the 2000 Olympics, another claim he makes on his website.

Kwang Kyung Yoo claimed he was a senior professor in exercise and sports science at Macquarie University. Photo: Facebook

Yoo’s alleged slaughter was discovered when a friend of the Cho family called police concerned that they couldn’t raise them. Police forced entry to the townhouse and discovered the body of Mr Cho, about 11am on Tuesday.

A short time later, police found the bodies of Mrs Cho and a child – who cannot be named for legal reasons – in the Daking Rd business.

CCTV from inside the studio allegedly shows Yoo follow the pair into a back room, where he then strangles them.

The crime scene in Baulkham Hills on Tuesday. Picture: Richard Dobson

NSW Police homicide boss detective superintendent Danny Doherty said Yoo’s alleged actions had “cataclysmic consequences” for the Cho family in Sydney and South Korea who had lost three relatives.

“This was a loving family … there were no warnings. It was out of the blue. It wasn’t something that was forewarned,” Mr Doherty said.

A neighbour of the Cho family, named Nancy, said she saw Mrs Cho on Monday afternoon at a local school pick up when she chillingly said she was on her way to the martial arts studio.

“It was 3pm at the school … she said she was rushing off to taekwondo and I was going to (my child’s) swimming lesson,” Nancy said.

When Nancy arrived home at her townhouse two doors from the Cho’s, she said nothing looked untoward.

“I took my child to a guitar lesson and we got home about 8pm … nothing to see, nothing at all … that is what shocks me so much”.

Kwang Kyung Yoo. Picture: Facebook

Nancy said Mrs Cho was a “gentle woman” who was unlikely to be romantically linked to Yoo, one line of inquiry being probed by police who are looking at whether a bitter love triangle is behind the deaths.

“She was very, what can I say, reserved, very shy,” she said.

At Yoo’s home in North Kellyville, neighbours said he was a married father of two young children who they saw mowing the lawn just days ago.

The resident said Mr Yoo had mentioned his taekwondo business was struggling in the past year.

“He was telling me it was difficult, especially after Covid,” he said.

Students and parents at the school the child attended were being offered counselling and support.

Crime scene specialists remained at the townhouse and studio on Tuesday, painstakingly sifting through evidence.

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