A Chinese international student who fatally stabbed his girlfriend at least 75 times in a “rageful” attack inside her Sydney apartment has been jailed for up to 20 years.
Weijie He, 24, killed 19-year-old Liqun Pan with two knives and a hammer in her Wolli Creek flat on June 27, 2020, before he jumped from the fourth floor of the apartment block in a suicide attempt.
He pleaded guilty to the murder in October 2022, after a long period of rehabilitation due to multiple severe injuries sustained in the fall.
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On Friday, NSW Supreme Court Justice Julia Lonergan jailed He for a maximum of 20 years with a non-parole period of 13 years for the “extremely violent” attack.
“He clearly intended to kill her, this is very serious offending,” Lonergan said in handing down the sentence.
Police found Pan in the foetal position in a pool of blood with 37 stab wounds to her head and face, and 10 to her back, including one wound so deep it breached the spine, the court was told.
There were also strangulation injuries and defensive wounds to the hands of the victim, whom Lonergan said must have been in “abject terror” during the “unimaginable” chase and struggle.
His heavy use of canisters of the drug nitrous oxide — hundreds were found at the crime scene — could mean he was in a transient delusion at the time, but if so it only marginally reduced the conduct’s seriousness, Lonergan said.
It was “appallingly self-indulgent” for He to use the drug to escape reality and his responsibilities but “this is what the offender did,” the judge said.
The “rageful” attack may also have been He, a struggling student and the son of wealthy Chinese parents, taking out on the victim his own failings “like so many men that murder their domestic partners”.
He had coercively controlled Pan over two years including getting her to sign a contract that insisted she get rid of acne, not go to bars or clubs and always have him as the background of her phone, the court heard.
“There’s no sign of remorse,” Lonegran said of the killer, who is now confined to a wheelchair and received the sentence via a Mandarin translator.
The judge said she took into account the hardship He would have in jail given his numerous disabilities as a mitigating factor on sentence.
The impact of the killing on the victim’s family, who came from a small village in rural Guangdong province, had been “crushing and immeasurable”, the court was told.
They were heartbroken by the untimely death of Pan who was described as a woman of “kindness and affection”.
With time served, He will be eligible for parole on January 19, 2034.