Accused’s age a key issue in trial over 30-year-old murder
A man on trial in the Supreme Court over the brutal cold-blooded killing of a Springvale seamstress more than three decades ago may have only been aged just 14 at the time, a jury has heard.
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A man accused of the brutal cold-blooded killing of a seamstress more than three decades ago may have only been aged just 14 at the time, a jury has heard.
Meth Mean is on trial in the Supreme Court over the murder of Ranny Yun at her Springvale home on October 15, 1987.
He was not charged until November 2017, when he was arrested in Western Australia and extradited to Victoria.
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Police allege Mr Mean bashed Ms Yun, 27, over the head with a wooden block until she was likely unconscious, before slitting her throat during a vicious sexual assault.
Ms Yun’s teen cousin returned home from school to find her covered in blood, naked from the waist down, and one breast exposed, lying on the floor of her sewing room.
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers told the 13-person jury that Ms Yun had suffered severe, blunt-force trauma to the back of her head and her throat had been cut.
A bloodied knife was found on the ground beside her.
“What the prosecution does allege, is that the accused murdered the deceased in the course of a sexual assault on her,” Dr Rogers said.
Mr Mean has pleaded not guilty to murder.
His lawyer, Anthony Lewis, told the court Mr Mean’s age will form a key issue in the case. They say he was born in April 1973, making him just 14 at the time.
But the prosecution alleges he is older, with his family giving statements that their mother reduced their ages when they arrived in Australia so they could go to school.
Mr Lewis said there were also questions around if police had ruled out all other suspects. He suggested Ms Yun’s husband Kuy Thong was the killer, or had arranged her killing.
“The issue in the trial is who committed the murder,” Mr Lewis said.
But Dr Rogers said DNA evidence had linked Mr Mean to the scene. She said semen found on Ms Yun’s body was “100 billion times more likely” to be from the accused killer.
Explaining how this was possible in his record of interview, Dr Rogers said, Mr Mean claimed he masturbated in the room after becoming aroused on seeing her dead, naked body, when he went to visit her after school.
Dr Rogers said the pair, both Cambodian-born, had first met at a refugee camp in Malaysia.
Ms Yun’s husband was related to Mr Mean’s father, she said.
It was her husband who sponsored Mr Mean and his family to come to Australia.
The trial, before Justice Jane Dixon, continues.