Lin family murders: Xie’s depraved desire for niece behind massacre

BRENDA Lin was enjoying a school excursion in New Caledonia when her uncle Robert Xie murdered her entire family — in part, so he could have unfettered sexual access to her.

• Surviving relative Brenda tells how killings affected her life
• Xie’s wife: He’s a scapegoat

BRENDA Lin was enjoying a school excursion in New Caledonia when her uncle Robert Xie murdered her entire family — in part, so he could have unfettered sexual access to her.

During a trial this year a jury heard how Xie had murdered five members of the Lin family as they slept in their beds in their North Epping home. Prosecutors argued he was motivated by his perceived lowly status in the family. But a more sinister sexual motive — previously not reported for legal reasons — can now be revealed ­because Ms Lin has given consent to be identified in a TV interview with Seven’s Sunday Night.

During the trial the court heard how Xie had inappropriately touched Ms Lin before he wiped out her family.

Brenda Lin arrives at the Supreme Court for Robert Xie's sentencing. Picture: John Grainger

Brenda Lin attending the funerals of her family members in 2009. Picture: Getty

But his sexual abuse grew more intense when she moved into the house he owned with her aunt Kathy Lin after the murders.

Last Friday Ms Lin sat metres away from her mass murdering uncle as she read a harrowing victim impact statement to the NSW Supreme Court. She spoke of all the “bittersweet” moments she had experienced during her life without her family by her side.

Uncle’s grisly act of jealousy

“I do not even know how to begin to express how the murder of my immediate family have impacted my life — there are not enough words to describe the pain and suffering (he) caused me and those around me,” Ms Lin said last week. “It’s been seven-and-a-half years since I lost my family — that is seven-and-a-half years without a loving mother, seven-and-a-half years without a loving father, seven-and-a-half years without two exuberant brothers who were my best and closest friends and seven-and-a-half years without an extremely kind aunt.”

The Lin family during a trip.

In January, Xie was found guilty by majority verdict of murdering his brother-in-law Min “Norman” Lin, 45, Mr Lin’s wife Yun Li “Lily” Lin, 43, her sister Yun Bin “Irene” Yin, 39, and the Lins’ two young boys Henry, 12, and Terry, 9, as they slept in their beds in their Boundary Rd home in July 2009.

In January, Xie was found guilty by majority verdict of murdering his brother-in-law’s family.

Robert Xie is taken to prison after being sentenced to five life sentences.

Grandmother Yang Fei Lin mourns her slain family out court. Picture: Jeremy Piper

In her sentencing remarks Justice Elizabeth Fullerton described the murders as “a single episode of brutal and calculated murderous violence” and “a course of offending that can only be described as heinous in the extreme”.

On Monday she sentenced Xie to five life sentences, one for each of the five family members he killed. Ms Lin has recalled the devastating last moment she saw her father at the airport — a moment when she, as a prideful teenager, decided to not give him a hug goodbye.

“To this day my biggest regret was not hugging him and telling him I loved him, to say thank you for being an amazingly loving and caring parent,” she said.

She also spoke about how she was not able to sleep at night but when she did she sometimes experienced ecstatic happiness when she saw her family in her dreams but always woke to the painful realisation it was not real.

Brenda at 17, attempting to get on with her life as a high school student.

Brenda said she regrets not hugging her father before she left for the 2009 school trip. Picture: John Grainger

“The pain of losing loved ones, that never goes away and does not get any easier with time. As time goes on others may forget but I will have to live with the aftermath of the crime for the rest of my life.”

The Lin family were very well known to the Epping community, with Min Lin being the owner of a local newsagency. Xie and his wife Kathy “discovered” the bodies of the Lin family after a number of people contacted them after the newsagency had not opened.

Xie was arrested in May 2011. It was the Crown case that a stain on the floor of Xie’s garage was the blood of at least four of the deceased, inadvertently left there by Xie after the murders.

Xie has always maintained his innocence and his wife Kathy — whose family was murdered — continues to stand by him.

She has indicated her husband will appeal his conviction.

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