Accused killer admits leaving body to ‘rot forever’ on Brisbane balcony

A man accused of murdering his flatmate has refused to look at photos of her body while being questioned if he left her to “rot away forever” on his balcony.

Yang Zhao, 30, on Thursday spent his second day on the witness stand testifying on his own defence after pleading not guilty to the murder of Qiong Yan, 29, in September 2020 at their inner-Brisbane apartment.

Crown prosecutor Chris Cook presented Zhao with crime scene pictures of Yan’s body after it had been sealed for 10 months in a tool box on Zhao’s balcony.

Yang Zhao, left, is accused of killing his flatmate Qiong Yan at their Hamilton apartment and leaving her body in a toolbox on the balcony for 10 months.

“You let her rot forever on your balcony?” Cook said.

“I admit to the mistake and I’m willing to accept the consequences,” Zhao said with the aid of a Mandarin interpreter.

Zhao pleaded guilty at the start of the Supreme Court trial to interfering with Yan’s corpse.

Cook told Justice Martin Burns on Thursday he had handed photos of Yan in the tool box to Zhao.

“I asked him to look at it and he refused,” Cook said.

Zhao admitted drinking alcohol and inhaling nitrous oxide bulbs, which he referred to as “nangs” or “laughing gas”, in the apartment while he kept Yan on the balcony.

“You had sex with someone within metres from where her body was and also within metres from where she died?” Cook said.

“Yes,” Zhao said.

Zhao, a Chinese national, on Wednesday said Yan died accidentally while inhaling nitrous oxide with him and he hid her body because he was afraid of being charged with supplying drugs.

“At the time I didn’t know nangs were not illegal,” he said.

Yan was also a Chinese national who was the director of a migration agency.

The jury heard Zhao claim he lied to police when he told them he killed Yan by striking her on the head with a metal bottle and strangling her.

“I said those things because I wanted the death penalty to be imposed on me,” Zhao said.

The jury heard Zhao felt “shamed” for hiding Yan’s body and using her phone to impersonate her via text message to her mother to steal $463,000 of her family’s money.

He admitted impersonating Yan to her estranged husband.

“After she passed away I made up a lot of lies,” he said.

Cook asked Zhao whether he had any intention of telling Yan’s mother – Rongmei Yan – that her daughter was dead.

“No,” Zhao said.

Rongmei Yan was in court to hear Zhao’s testimony, having travelled from Shanghai to Brisbane.

Zhao agreed he started acting “callous and mean” in messages to Yan’s mother after she stopped sending money to her daughter’s accounts.

He admitted he wanted to stop Yan’s mother from sending texts to the person she thought was her daughter.

“You were trying to cover your tracks? Of your crime; murder? Cook said.

“Not murder. I covered up the fact that she had died, to not let other people know about it,” Zhao said.

AAP