Taekwondo instructor charged with triple murder

Kwang Kyung Yoo faced court for the first time on Thursday as more details into the alleged murders came to light.

Taekwondo instructor Kwang Kyung Yoo charged with triple murder of Steven Cho, 39, his wife Min Cho, 41, and boy, 7

A taekwondo instructor has been charged with three counts of murder after he allegedly strangled a woman and a young boy inside his Western Sydney martial arts studio before confronting the woman’s husband at a nearby home and stabbing him to death.

Kwang Kyung Yoo, 49, presented to Westmead Hospital late on Monday night with stab wounds to his chest, arms and stomach. He told police he had been attacked in the carpark of a supermarket in North Parramatta earlier that evening.

It was the first in a chain of events that would lead police to discover the bodies of Steven Cho, 39, then his wife Min Cho, 41, and a seven year-old boy at two different locations in Western Sydney on Tuesday, which police described as “cataclysmic”.

Mr Yoo – known in sporting circles as Master Lion – faced a bedside court hearing on Thursday. He did not apply for bail.

Police were called to Watkins Ave in Baulkham Hills on Tuesday morning following a concern for welfare report, and found the body of Mr Cho, a beloved father and husband, with several fatal stab wounds. About two hours later, police located the bodies of Ms Cho and the 7-year-old boy at Lion’s taekwondo and Martial Arts studio, run by Mr Yoo, on Daking Street in North Parramatta.

Steven Cho and Min Cho.

Mr Yoo, a married father-of-two from North Kellyville, was arrested on Tuesday night after waking up from surgery for non life-threatening injuries. He was charged with three counts of murder about 9pm last night.

Despite not giving an interview to officers on Wednesday, police pieced together what they allege occurred.

Police will allege Mr Yoo killed the child sometime between 8pm and 10.59pm, and Ms Cho between 6.20pm and 10.59pm on Monday, February 19, inside the martial arts centre

“We’ll allege it was murderous intent and they died from their injuries,” police said on Wednesday.

He then drove Ms Cho’s white BMW to the Baulkham Hills home where she lived with her husband, and stabbed Mr Cho to death sometime between 9pm and 10.59pm, before presenting himself to Westmead Hospital.

Mr Yoo is understood to have been posing as a professor at Macquarie University on social media and lying about being selected for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Australia taekwondo said in a statement Mr Yoo “was never selected to represent Australia at the 2000 Sydney Olympics”.

Police are yet to determine a motive.

With NewsWire.