Man strangled a woman in her Melbourne apartment. Just 24 hours later, he killed again

An enraged Xiaozheng Lin strangled a woman in her apartment after she asked for more money while performing sex work.

“I put her under my control and coercion,” he told police after his arrest.

But his killing spree was not over.

About 24 hours later, the 22-year-old murdered a second sex worker in her home.

He left the two women – Yuqi Luo, 31, and Hyun Sook Jeon, 51 – for dead after attacking them in December 2022 and stealing cash and personal belongings, including designer handbags.

Lin, now 24 years old, would face a murder trial for the two deaths in August.

However, a month before the trial he offered to plead guilty to two counts of manslaughter, which prosecutors accepted.

Details of the case have not been reported since early 2023 due to a court order, which has since been rescinded.

Lin remained silent and kept his head down as he stood before the High Court in Melbourne on Monday for a pre-sentence hearing.

He visited a brothel on Boxing Day 2022, before calling a friend to take him to Ms Luo, a Chinese national who operated a sex work business from her Melbourne apartment.

Lin told his friend that he planned to rob Mrs. Luo because he had recently lost money gambling with TAB.

He was dropped off at her apartment after midnight on December 26, when he showered and had sex with Ms Luo.

He then asked her for oral sex, but she refused at no extra charge.

Lin became furious with Mrs. Luo and pushed her into bed, but she fought back and bit Lin on the hand.

He hit Ms. Luo and strangled her. He later told police he was angry at her request to pay another $100.

Lin left her for dead and stole $7,000 in cash, her phone and several designer handbags.

“She was gasping for air and I thought, OK, today I had a robbery and I didn’t kill her,” he later told police.

A friend of Ms Luo called a locksmith and found her body before calling emergency services.

The 31-year-old woman’s father, Luo Bo, said her death was a “huge blow to my heart.”

“It is extremely difficult to accept the cruel reality that my daughter was murdered,” he said in a statement read out in court.

Less than 24 hours after attacking Ms Luo, Lin went to see another sex worker, South Korean Ms Jeon, who lived in a Docklands apartment.

Lin pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter

After having sex, he fatally assaulted her and stole her laptop, bank cards, phone and building keys.

By the time Ms. Jeon’s body was found, she was too severely decomposed for a cause of death to be determined.

Lin told his lawyer, Paul Smallwood, that Ms Jeon was “attacked in circumstances in which she was severely shaken”, the court was told.

Mr Smallwood accepted that his client faced a lengthy prison sentence and would be deported back to China.

Prosecutor Kristie Churchill said Lin’s offending was “subjectively serious.”

“He caused the deaths of two vulnerable women in their own home, a place where they were allowed to feel safe and be safe, within 24 hours of each other,” she told the court.

“He stole from them, he left them in positions without regard for their safety and/or dignity.”

Lin, who has been in custody since his arrest on December 29, 2022, will be sentenced at a later date.