Sydney woman Qi Yu’s murderer Shuo Dong sentenced to 13 years’ jail
A teenager who murdered his Chinese housemate and dumped her body in Sydney’s upper north shore has been sentenced to at least 13 years in prison, as the young woman’s distraught parents watched.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The inconsolable parents of a young Chinese woman killed by her teenage roommate in their Sydney unit have screamed in court as he was sentenced to at least 13 years behind bars.
Campsie man Shuo Dong had a sexual motive to murder his landlord Qi Yu in 2018, and the then 19-year-old searched the penalty for murder in Australia on his phone two days beforehand.
A NSW Supreme Court judge accepted the Chinese citizen, who was in Australia on a bridging visa, was likely suffering schizophrenia at the time of Ms Yu’s “brutal and untimely death”.
Ms Yu’s parents wailed and yelled uncontrollably on Friday as Dong was handed a maximum 18 years in jail with a non-parole period of 13 years and six months.
Acting Justice Peter Hidden said the now 21-year-old showed callousness when he dumped Ms Yu’s partially naked body in bushland in Sydney’s upper north shore.
“The murder was premeditated,” he said. “I am not persuaded that he is remorseful.”
Ms Yu’s remains were found in a gully on the side of the M1 Motorway near Mount Ku-ring-gai train station, nearly seven weeks after she disappeared from her Campsie unit on June 8, 2018.
“The bottom half of her body was undressed and exposed,” Justice Hidden said.
“A long sleeve business shirt was tied around her neck.”
The judge gave Dong a 25 per cent sentence discount for pleading guilty to murder but condemned his refusal to reveal exactly how or why he took Ms Yu’s life.
Download our app and stay up to date anywhere, anytime
Despite moving to Sydney in 2009 to study electrical engineering, Ms Yu still spoke to her mother daily on social media app WeChat, and the last message she sent to Qin He when her house suddenly went dark that night was: “OMG. We’re having a power outage ... something is not right.”
“Qi Yu Was found without pants on her body, why? What terrible thing has the offender done to our innocent daughter?” her parents said.
“Our only child, thrown into the bush, left exposed so that all evidence would be destroyed.”
The 28-year-old’s devastated parents said their daughter had pitied Dong — a sacked tradesman who said his student visa had been cancelled — and showed him sympathy as she had also been a teenager when she first came to Australia alone.
“He returned her kindness with evil,” Ms He and her husband Zhihe Yu wrote.
“Her 10 years of hard work suddenly ended in vain and a bright future was ruined.”
Police allege they found blood-stained underwear in Ms Yu’s bedroom and Dong later tried to bite his own fingernails off to destroy DNA evidence.
Mr Yu shook and screamed while telling the court the tragedy has ruined their family, while his wife “wants to end her life every day and follow our daughter”.
“She washes her face with tears every day, and wakes up in nightmares almost every day,” he said.
A psychiatric report revealed that after losing his construction job, Dong decided to move out of the Campsie apartment because he was worried Ms Yu would report him to the immigration department.
What you get as a subscriber to The Daily Telegraph
The cannabis user, who is taking antipsychotic medication behind bars, has cried while telling a psychiatrist: “I didn’t want this to happen. I feel very guilty and very, very ashamed.”
Justice Hidden noted there has been ongoing concern about Dong’s exaggeration of his mental illness, adding “there remains a lack of clarity of diagnosis”.
He accepted that Dong likely suffered schizophrenia but stressed “there is no evidence the killing was a product of a psychotic episode”.
Dong had moved in less than three weeks earlier and allegedly revealed to a workmate plans to ask his landlord out on a dinner date, saying he “might have a chance with her”.
In November Dong claimed he’d had a sexual relationship with his victim but investigators said Ms Yu had not expressed any romantic interest in her tenant.
Police discovered large amounts of blood in Ms Yu’s Campsie property and her car, which Dong drove to Mount Ku-ring-gai before searching Google Maps for directions home on the night she disappeared.
Dong lied to detectives while claiming he had spent that night with his girlfriend — a woman who had travelled overseas from Melbourne in February that year.
In January the former kitchen hand threatened to kill another inmate while stabbing him with a “shiv” during a fight, and has reported hearing voices in jail.
Justice Hidden labelled Dong’s prospects of rehabilitation “uncertain,” and with time already served, he will be eligible for parole in December 2031.