Robert Xie sentenced: Lin daughter reveals harrowing loss as her uncle receives five life sentences
A YOUNG girl’s ordeal was revealed just moments before her mass-murdering uncle was handed five life sentences for each of those he bludgeoned to death.
NSW
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A JUDGE has described the devastating loss endured by a surviving member of the murdered Lin family — a young girl who lost her parents, her aunt and her two younger brothers in a bloody massacre.
Her harrowing ordeal was revealed yesterday moments before her mass-murdering uncle, Robert Xie, was handed five life sentences for each of the five members of the Lin family he brutally bludgeoned to death at their North Epping home in 2009 when she was just 15.
The grisly act was motivated out of jealousy because of his perceived subordinate status in the family. However, during the trial the court also heard of a sexual motive, which cannot be reported for legal reasons.
Before handing down her sentence, Justice Elizabeth Fullerton spoke of how the girl, who was the daughter of Min and Lily Lin, had suffered great mental trauma since the loss of her entire immediate family.
Justice Fullerton referred to the girl’s victim impact statement, which described how all her life achievements had “felt hollow” and “bittersweet” without her family by her side.
“She described the devastating impact of the loss of her entire immediate family on every aspect of her life,” Justice Fullerton said. 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.
During her sentencing remarks the judge 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”. Justice Fullerton’s judgment also outlined how the surviving relative was overseas at the time of the murder.
“(The girl) told me her achievements feel hollow and as she has passed various milestones from adolescence to early adulthood since the death of her family, celebrating those achievements with others is bittersweet,” Justice Fullerton said.
“She described missing the support and guidance her parents had given her as their eldest child with the certain knowledge that would have continued.
“She has difficulty sleeping.
“She is dealing with an array of mental health issues and is experiencing some trouble with her tertiary studies,” the judge said.
And despite being welcomed into other loving families, it would “never be the substitute for the love and support of her own family”.
On Friday, the court heard that the daughter gave her consent to being identified for the purposes of her Victim Impact Statement, and yesterday the judge said she had taken the statement into consideration when determining Xie’s sentence.
Xie, a former ear, nose and throat specialist, showed no emotion as he was sentenced to life imprisonment and was led down to the cells below the NSW Supreme Court.
A jury had found Xie guilty of killing his wife’s family as they slept in their beds.
He was originally charged in 2010 but justice has been a long time coming with one trial ending with a hung jury while the two other trials were aborted because of new evidence and a judge’s illness.
On the night of the murder, Xie cut the power to the Lin family home on Boundary Road before letting himself into the property using a key he copied from his wife Kathy.
Using an improvised hammer-like object he bashed the family to death in their beds — and, devastatingly, the youngest son Terry Lin was awake.
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“The spread and pattern of shed blood in the children’s bedroom and on their clothing indicated that Terry Lin had offered some resistance before he succumbed to the force of the attack and that Henry Lin was upright at least at some point when he was attacked,” Justice Fullerton said. 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 had 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.
NSW Police Homicide Detective Chief Inspector Chris Olen said the sentences represented “justice” for Min, Lily, Irene, Henry and Terry Lin.
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