Buddhist monk Karana Kim sentenced for online death threats

A Buddhist monk, who had previously been convicted of shooting the president of his temple with a nail gun, has returned to court after threatening to decapitate the same man.

Kim was sentenced at Downing Centre District Court.

A Buddhist monk told a man he had previously attacked with a nail gun he would “cut off your head” and “burn down your house” in a series of violently graphic online threats.

Karana Kim, a Vietnamese man who joined the Vat Ketanak Khmer Kampuchea temple at Rossmore in Sydney’s southwest when he arrived in Australia, was convicted and sentenced for sending material to cause fear of harm at Downing Centre District Court on Friday.

Kim was previously convicted and sentenced after he brutally attacked the temple’s president, Tha Lam, with a nail gun before turning it on himself in 2014, the court heard.

Kim arrived in Australia on a holiday visa in 2012, with the Rossmore temple then assisting him in an unsuccessful application for permanent residency.

Professional records show Kim had undergone “severe decline” and exhibited “severe mental dysfunction” including poor impulse control while at the temple.

The police line at the monastery in 2014.

Threatening messages sent via Facebook to Mr Lam were discovered in October 2019, including a number of death threats, the court heard.

The court heard messages – which were captured and translated into English by police – told Mr Lam, “I want you dead”, “we come to your house. We kill you”, and “we will cut off your head”. Another message read: “Be careful, you cannot get away from me”.

Judge Sharon Harris sentenced Kim at Downing Centre district court. Picture: Angela Brkic.

Mr Lam was so afraid for his life he drove to the temple “because he believed the defendant would kill him and didn’t want his family to see it”. The next day, Kim’s phone was confiscated and he was served with a court order.

Judge Sharon Harris said the threats were objectively serious, and noted the content directed at Mr Lam contained “death threats” and “graphic threats of decapitation and cutting off limbs”.

However, she said the court must consider Kim’s diagnosis with a major neurodegenerative disorder, combined with post traumatic stress disorder from his time in Vietnam.

The court heard Kim had also been diagnosed with schizophrenia, which may have been emerging during his 2014 attack but was not considered in that sentencing.

Kim was convicted for sending material to cause fear of harm and was sentenced to a two year, four months term of imprisonment. The sentence will be served at a state government forensic mental health unit as he is not an Australian citizen and due to his mental health and visa circumstances.