‘Happy birthday’: accused killer’s texts to woman’s mum
Rex Martinich |
A man accused of murdering a woman allegedly used her phone in the months after her death to text “goodnight” and “happy birthday” to her mother, a jury has heard.
Yang Zhao, 30, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of flatmate Qiong Yan, 29, in September 2020 at their apartment in the inner-Brisbane suburb of Hamilton.
He has instead pleaded guilty to interfering with Ms Yan’s corpse, which was found by police in a large toolbox on the apartment’s balcony.
Ms Yan’s body was left to decompose for nearly 10 months inside the toolbox while covered with a blanket, the jury heard.
Crown prosecutor Chris Cook on Wednesday read out to the jury some of the 2400 text messages exchanged between Ms Yan’s WeChat account and her mother, Rongmei Yan, after September 2020.
The account texted “Goodnight mum” and “busy preparing to move to Melbourne” three days after Ms Yan’s alleged murder.
Ms Yan’s mother attended the trial on Wednesday assisted by an interpreter after flying to Brisbane from China to give evidence.
Mr Cook told the jury he would allege Zhao wrote the messages after he murdered Ms Yan to conceal the killing and steal more than $400,000 from her mother.
Ms Yan’s mother was sent a photo of a country landscape and told by her daughter’s WeChat account she was staying on a farm with poor reception that made video calls impossible.
“Happy birthday,” the WeChat account told Ms Yan’s mother in a text sent more than two months after her daughter’s alleged murder.
“Thank you baby,” her mother replied in her text that was translated by police.
Ms Yan’s WeChat account claimed she made $200,000 on the share market and asked the mother for multiple payments of up to $100,000 to help buy a house.
Zhao told detectives he “panicked” and staged a video of Ms Yan petting her cat to send to her mother after she asked for a video call several months later.
Ms Yan’s mother earlier sat silently in court through a recorded interview in which Zhao told police how he struck her daughter in the head before choking her.
“I killed her … she asked me to do it as fast and quick as I can,” Zhao said in the video played to the jury.
“I smashed her head. I wasn’t strong enough. She struggled. She asked me to choke her.”
The jury was shown videos of Zhao being arrested on July 19, 2021 and interviewed by NSW Police in Sydney.
Zhao said in the interview he and Ms Yan had been inhaling nitrous oxide from a metal cream-whipping canister, later using it to hit her.
He claimed they both wanted to die because of having “bad lives” and losing money on investments, but he was too afraid to take his own life after killing Ms Yan.
“Are you going to show this to her parents?” he asked when detectives said the interview was being recorded.
Zhao denied he threatened Ms Yan over claims she had owed him money.
He said he never worked while staying in Australia on an international student visa but supported himself with his parents’ money and from investing and cryptocurrency.
The jury was shown police crime scene photos of the balcony, which depicted the toolbox stored in a corner behind a kitty litter box and next to a folding clothes rack.
The outside of the box was sealed with duct tape and adorned with prayers embroidered on silk bags.
Zhao told detectives he felt guilty after killing Ms Yan but at times felt he had done the right thing.
Asked why he didn’t try to dispose of Ms Yan’s remains, Zhao said he did not know how to bury a body.
“I didn’t want to be disrespectful to her. She was too good,” he said.
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AAP
