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A Colombian student wrote a letter to then-Attorney General Christian Porter describing “a crazy night” during which he killed a sex worker moments after learning she was transgender, a court has heard.
Hector Enrique Valencia is on trial in the New South Wales Supreme Court after he admitted to killing Kimberley McRae in a violent altercation in January 2020.
The 23-year-old pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter but denied murdering the sex worker, a plea not accepted by Crown prosecutors.
Héctor Enrique Valencia Valencia (pictured) faces trial for the alleged murder of sex worker Kimberley McRae
The former Colombian army soldier took the stand on Monday to explain the deadly altercation with Ms. McRae on the afternoon of January 8.
The court heard that he first saw Ms McRae, 69, when he came across an online advertisement for the sexual services of a 38-year-old ‘blonde MILF with G-cup breasts’.
Valencia contacted the woman via WhatsApp and went to her apartment in the Sydney beachside suburb of Coogee after 3pm, the court heard.
He paid her $100 in cash and then went to her bedroom, took off her clothes, and sat on her bed.
The court heard that Ms McRae performed oral sex on the 23-year-old for five to ten minutes.
Valencia first saw Ms. McRae (pictured) when she came across an online advertisement for the sexual services of a 38-year-old ‘G-cup blonde MILF’.
As the couple spoke, Valencia told the court that she began to question what the sex worker had told her.
“I started to suspect that the person might be transgender,” she said.
‘For the breasts and physical appearance.’
Ms McRae denied the allegation three times before admitting it when Valencia asked a fourth time ‘out loud’, the court heard.
“I felt cheated and I started to get upset,” Valencia said.
The student told the court that he was upset because his religious beliefs specified ‘it was not normal for me to be sexually intimate with another man’.
Valencia contacted Ms McRae via WhatsApp and went to her apartment in Coogee, a beachside suburb of Sydney (pictured)
He told the court that he hit the sex worker in the stomach and then in the face while he was still naked.
Ms McRae grabbed a nearby lamp and the two began fighting over the power cord, the court heard.
“I was afraid I was going to choke on the lamp (the cord),” Valencia said.
He said the cable snapped and they both fell to the ground, where he pressed part of the cable against the sex worker’s neck.
He forcefully held her there for “a few seconds” until she stopped resisting, the court heard.
A medical expert previously testified that Ms. McRae died due to neck compression.
“I was scared and I panicked,” said the Colombian native.
Valencia was extradited from Aruba to Australia for the death of Ms. McRae. Image: New South Wales Police
He grabbed the sheets from the bed and threw them on Ms McRae “in case she was conscious” and tried to attack him, the court heard.
He then searched for their mobile phones, flushed them down the toilet so she couldn’t communicate with him, and claimed the money he paid her.
The business college student maintained that he acted in self-defense “to stop his attack.”
He told the court that he “probably” watched her die.
“I think I killed the whore… I don’t know if she’s dead but she must be after what happened,” Valencia wrote in a message to a friend days later.
He said he told two friends about the deadly altercation because he was “having suicidal thoughts” but did not tell them that Ms McRae was transgender.
“I didn’t want them to know… that I was with… a man,” Valencia told the court.
I didn’t want to be embarrassed.
Héctor Enrique Valencia (pictured) is on trial for the alleged murder of sex worker Kimberley McRae in her Coogee apartment
The 23-year-old said he would not have engaged Ms McRae’s services if he had known she was transgender.
He admitted to assaulting the 69-year-old man because he felt he had been tricked into having sex with a man.
Valencia flew to South America three days after McRae’s death, but was arrested and extradited to Australia to stand trial.
While in jail, the court heard that he drafted a letter, with the help of family members, to then-Attorney General Christian Porter describing the fatal confrontation.
“I am a young migrant who did not know how to handle a situation that abruptly changed from a night of passion to a night of madness and confrontation,” Valencia wrote.
Crown prosecutor Craig Everson SC told the court it was undisputed that Valencia’s actions (pictured) ended the sex worker’s life.
The 23-year-old said he used his “strength as a defense mechanism” when he strangled Ms McRae with the lamp cord in her own home.
He also told the Attorney General that he feared he would be deported or face “public embarrassment” for his role in Ms McRae’s death.
“As a foreigner, I was also afraid of a scandal,” he wrote.
Crown prosecutor Craig Everson SC told the court it was undisputed that Valencia’s actions ended the sex worker’s life.
He told the court that the 23-year-old killed Ms McRae out of anger after learning she was transgender.
“There is no problem that an act of the defendant caused the death of Kim McRae,” he said.
“He believed he had been tricked…he retaliated with the intent to cause some really serious injury by attacking Kim McRae’s neck and choking her until she stopped struggling.”
Defense attorney Claire Wasley will give her final statement Tuesday before Judge Dina Yehia.