Xiaozheng Lin sentenced for manslaughter of sex workers Yuqi Luo and Hyun Sook Jeon

A crying killer who got a manslaughter plea deal after taking the lives of two sex workers within 24 hours in Melbourne’s CBD could walk free from jail in a matter of years.

Xiaozheng Lin avoided murder charges and instead faced manslaughter charges. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

A crying killer who got a manslaughter plea deal after taking the lives of two sex workers within 24 hours could be out of jail within seven years.

Xiaozheng Lin was sentenced to a maximum 14 years jail with a minimum of nine years over the slaying of Yuqi Luo, 31, and Hyun Sook Jeon, 51 after he avoided murder convictions.

With time served, he would be eligible for parole in just over seven years.

Xiaozheng Lin has been sentenced. Picture: Supplied

The 24-year-old sat with his head bowed during his sentence in the Supreme Court on Thursday, where he could be heard sobbing in the dock.

In sentencing, Supreme Court judge Justice Stephen Kaye said it was “important that the sentences be of sufficient severity so as to provide a clear lesson to other persons, who might otherwise be minded to commit acts of violence against women”, including those involved in sex work.

His Honour said if anyone chose to commit such acts as Lin had “they can expect to be deprived of their freedom to live in society for a substantial period of time”.

“It is by that means that this court can, so far as it is possible to do so, protect other women from the kind of fate which befell your two victims in this case.”

The English language student earlier pleaded guilty to the lesser charges over the deaths of the two women, who he killed and robbed in CBD apartments within a single day over the 2022 Christmas period.

Ms Luo – the sole financial supporter for her family in rural China – was found dead in her La Trobe St apartment hours after Lin strangled her to death following a dispute about sex.

Days later, Ms Jeon’s body was found at her Waterside Place unit in Docklands, with her cause of death unable to be determined.

The gambling addict, who engaged sex workers due to self consciousness over a limp, told a friend he was going to rob a sex worker after he lost money at the TAB.

The friend, who had earlier taken Lin to a brothel, dropped him at Ms Luo’s apartment after midnight on December 27, and waited outside while Lin strangled her to death after sex.

The killer told police he strangled her by wrapping his arm around her neck for about a minute when she refused to give him oral sex without paying an additional $100 after they slept together.

She bit him on the arm as he gripped tighter and tighter, and when he finally let go the court heard she was left gasping for air.

Lin – who claimed Ms Luo was alive when he fled, stealing $7000, her devices and luxury handbags – told police he was drunk and she’d made him feel humiliated.

He told officers her request for further payment made him “quite angry” and that he considered her attitude as being “pretty bad”.

Xiaozheng Lin struck a deal with prosecutors on the lesser charge of manslaughter. Picture: Supplied

Driving off with his waiting mate, Lin threw away Ms Luo’s phone before taking her belongings, hidden in a laundry basket, inside his Huntingdale home.

That same night, about 10.45pm, the Huntingdale man went to Ms Jeon’s apartment and had sex with her before killing her in an unknown way, leaving in an Uber with her bank cards, phone, laptop and keys.

The court heard he’d soon burned through $17,000 of her cash.

Ms Jeon was discovered by police lying face down on the bed three days later with towels wrapped around her head, her cause of death undetermined.

Her husband, in court for the sentence on Thursday, handed up a moving victim impact statement to Justice Kaye outlining his “deep grief”.

Lin’s barrister Paul Smallwood told the court his client had admitted to seriously shaking Ms Jeon.

The man, who moved from China to study English at a Melbourne language college, was arrested over Ms Luo’s death after he was identified on CCTV.

He was then linked to Ms Jeon’s slaying, with officers finding her belongings during a warrant at his home.

Charged with murder, he struck a deal with prosecutors on the lesser charge of manslaughter, which carries a maximum 25 years behind bars.

Justice Stephen Kaye described how Lin showed the women “no mercy” as they lay helpless in their homes and he callously took from them “their personal safety and dignity, but also their personal belongings”.

“You plainly suffered no pang of consciousness … unperturbed by the harm you caused Yuqi Luo … one day later (he committed a) serious assault on another harmless and defenceless woman,” His Honour said, noting he’d shown no remorse.

Xiaozheng Lin was sentenced to a maximum 14 years jail. Picture: NewsWire

Sex workers have been left outraged by the sentence.

Gia Green, the manager of Victorian sex worker organisation Vixen, said Victorian sex workers were “horrified and devastated by the lenient sentence that Lin has received, which does not reflect the gravity of his actions”.

“We cannot help but feel that the sentencing would be more severe if Yuqi and Hyun were not Asian-migrant sex workers,” she said.

Asian Migrant Sex Worker Advisory Group spokeswoman Namon asked, “Nine years for two lives?”

“It’s not fair and we’re really disappointed, even for one life, nine years,” Namon said.

Despite the manslaughter deal, Namon said “it’s murder” and that the case had left Asian migrant sex workers feeling “really unsafe”.

“It’s giving the message to the society that our lives, our occupation, is not deserving of respect,” Namon said.

“People thinking they can just treat us like nothing and our life is not worth anything, that’s what we’re seeing.”

Namon said Lin’s sentence “seems low” and “it should be a better legal system, society should understand we are part of Australia and we work like any other occupation and we shouldn’t be treated differently and with disrespect.”

“We will continue to fight for our sex worker rights and it will not end today,” she said.

“We do not want to see this happen again.”

An Office of Public Prosecutions spokeswoman said it reviewed “all sentences imposed in cases prosecuted by our office as a matter of course, and this sentence is no exception.”

Sex industry figures have called the sentence ‘outrageous’, saying it has left workers feeling ‘really unsafe’. Picture: Stock image, Brandon Livesay

A sex industry figure said he doubted the sentence would have been the same if the victims were a pair of suburban mums or two girls from private schools.

A police source said no one would have expected the maximum available cumulative sentence of 50 years but a term less than one-third that was clearly not enough.

That source said the sentence followed a long pattern.

“We should be jumping up and down about it. There’s no justice for victims. The courts pay lip service to victims,” he said.

“Justice is so biased towards rehabilitation of offenders. This is a slap in the face for the community and the families of the victims. Victims are inconsequential in the legal system.”

Melbourne adult industry stalwart Maxine Fensom described the sentence as “outrageous”.

“It says there are two laws in our community,” Ms Fensom said.

“Sex workers are treated shabbily. There must be an appeal against the leniency of this.”

It’s understood the two killings were set to run as two separate jury trials, with a gag order put in place banning media from reporting the cases to protect each murder hearing.

That suppression was lifted in July after Lin entered a guilty plea to two counts of manslaughter.

Lin, who had no criminal record before the killings, will be eligible for parole in December 2031.

He’s expected to be deported back to China upon his release.