R v Dong [2020] NSWSC 1277

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Dong [2020] NSWSC 1277 Hearing dates: 6 August 2020 Decision date: 18 September 2020 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: Hidden AJ Decision: Sentenced to imprisonment for 18 years, NPP 13 years and 6 months commencing on 9 June 2018 Catchwords: CRIMINAL LAW – sentence – murder – plea of guilty – premeditated – intent to kill – aggravated by disposal of the body – manner of death and motive not disclosed. Category: Sentence Parties: Regina (Crown) Shuo Dong (Offender) Representation: Counsel: Mr G Harrison (Crown) Mr N Steel (Offender)

Solicitors: Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Crown) Legal Aid NSW (Offender) File Number(s): 2018/182685 Publication restriction: Nil

REASONS FOR SENTENCE 1. The offender, Shuo Dong, has pleaded guilty to the murder of a young woman, Qi Yu, at a flat in Campsie where they were living on Friday, 8 June 2018. Ms Yu was 28 years old. She was born and raised in China and came to Australia in 2009, at the age of 18. The offender stands for sentence for that crime. 2. The Crown and the offender accepted as agreed facts a comprehensive Crown case statement, setting out the circumstantial case against the offender if the matter had proceeded to trial. The parties provided a helpful overview of the facts, based on the Crown case statement, upon which the following recitation of the facts is based.

Facts

Background 1. The deceased, Qi Yu, was 28 years old and lived at 4/3 Loch Street Campsie. She used one of the bedrooms upstairs and a female flatmate, Jianing Wu, used the other. The offender moved into the unit on 20 May 2018 and used the downstairs bedroom. There was a lounge room, kitchen and bathroom downstairs, and the offender was not allowed to go upstairs. The offender paid $880, which was four weeks' rent. He then told Ms Yu he wanted to move out and was due to do so on 9 June 2018. She gave the offender $440 back and they did not argue.