Derek Barrett stopped to buy drinks at servo with niece’s body in boot of car

ALMOST every aspect of his victim’s brutal death was photographed on his mobile phone and the cover up captured on CCTV but a murderer claims he cannot remember brutally stabbing his niece to death.

IN the early hours of April 24, 2016, surveillance cameras at a Budget petrol station in Campsie captured Derek Barrett, 29, calmly stopping to fill up his car and buying a couple of drinks for the road while the bloodied body of Michelle Leng, 25, lay in the boot of his car just a few metres away.

After stopping for petrol Barrett was next seen driving into a carpark at Snapper Point on the Central Coast. It is where he then threw the university student’s body — wrapped in a plastic sheet — into the blowhole and drove to his parents house.

Derek Barrett at Budget Petrol station in Campsie before driving on to Snapper Point blowhole on the Central Coast.

Derek Barrett is led into the supreme court for a sentencing hearing on Wednesday. Picture: John Grainger

The day after he dumped the body, he went to Campsie police station with his wife to report Ms Leng missing.

Over 48 hours, Barrett bound and gagged his niece, photographed her naked body, stabbed her to death and drove 100km to dump her body.

Derek Barrett with his wife reporting his niece missing at Campsie police station after he had dumped her body.

But police still don’t know what took place in the final horrifying moments of Ms Leng’s life between Friday, April 22, and Sunday, April 24, because Barrett claims he can’t remember as he was in a drug-fuelled haze.

Appearing before NSW Supreme Court yesterday he gave evidence for the first time during his sentencing hearing after pleading guilty to murder in August.

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Michelle (Mengmei) Leng had moved to Australia five years before her murder. Picture: Instagram

Mother of Michelle Leng Mei Zhang arrives at court with family and supporters. Picture: John Grainger

Under cross-examination from Crown prosecutor Margaret Cunneen SC he repeatedly told the court he had taken a cocktail of ice and synthetic cannabis prior to murdering Ms Leng.

“You will not tell us how long it took for that young lady to die? When she died? Or how long she suffered for?” Ms Cunneen asked.

Barrett replied: “I do not know. I wish knew myself. You have no idea how it frustrates me every day. I ­remember seeing her face distressed, I remember apologising at some point, I believe she was alive. I don’t remember the actual stabbing part itself.”

Ms Leng had moved to Australia from China about five years ago and was living with Barrett, her aunt and her cousin.

Michelle Leng at the wedding of her aunt and the man who would later murder her, Derek Barrett, in 2012. Picture: Instagram

According to agreed facts, Barrett had previously told his wife he was ­attracted to Ms Leng and wanted to have a sexual relationship with her.

When his wife was out of town on April 22, he gagged and bound Ms Leng to her bed. He then took 19 ­photos of her naked body.

At some point over the next two days, Barrett stabbed Ms Leng 40 times, inflicting a fatal stab wound to the throat.

Michelle Leng’s mother breaks down

Horrifyingly, in the midst of Ms Leng’s terrifying ordeal on Saturday, April 23, Barrett’s stepdaughter arrived at the Campsie unit and spent more than three hours there completely ­unaware of her cousin’s torture.

Ms Cunneen said Ms Leng suffered “extraordinary humiliation and degradation”. “One of the photographs where the victim’s bound but still alive indicates a look of absolute terror on her face,” she said, calling for Barrett to spend life in custody.

“Now that this child is gone my whole life is shattered,” Ms Leng’s mother, Mei Zhang said in her victim impact statement.

Barrett will be sentenced tomorrow.