Student is found NOT GUILTY of murdering transgender sex worker
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A Colombian student who killed a Coogee sex worker when he discovered she was transgender has been found not guilty of murder after a judge found he did not intend to seriously injure her.
Hector Enrique Valencia Valencia, 23, killed Kimberley McRae, 69, in January 2020.
He punched her in the stomach and face before pressing a lamp cord into her neck and leaving her lifeless body inside her apartment.
Throughout his trial, Valencia admitted to assaulting and killing Ms McRae after going to her Mount Street home in eastern Sydney and paying $100 for oral sex.
He argued that he did not intend to cause serious bodily harm to Ms. McRae, who was found dead on January 14 after a concerned relative contacted her real estate agent.
Héctor Enrique Valencia Valencia, 23, killed Kimberley McRae, 69, (pictured) when he pressed a lamp cord against her neck and left her lifeless body inside her apartment in January 2020
Throughout his trial, Valencia (pictured) admitted to assaulting and killing Ms. McRae after going to her Mount Street home and paying $100 for oral sex.
Earlier this month, he stood trial in the New South Wales Supreme Court, pleading guilty to manslaughter but not guilty to murder.
On Friday, Judge Dina Yehia found the former business student not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.
She said the Crown’s prosecution had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Valencia intended to kill or cause serious harm to Ms McRae.
Her decomposing body was found on her bedroom floor covered in a doona, with a pillow over her head and part of a lamp cord around her neck.
Crown prosecutor Craig Everson argued that by pressing the cord on Ms McRae’s neck, Valencia exhibited “an intent to inflict really serious injury” after he became angry and upset to find out she was transgender.
Héctor Enrique Valencia Valencia was extradited to Australia. Image: New South Wales Police
The court heard that Ms McRae advertised her services online as a 38-year-old woman, describing herself as a ‘MILF’ with ‘G-cup breasts’.
After stripping and receiving sexual services for about five to 10 minutes, Mr. Valencia became “suspicious” about Ms. McRae’s gender, he told the court during the trial.
He said in his testimony that at the time he believed she was a woman and that it went against his religious beliefs “that I was sexually intimate with another man,” which led him to feel “upset.”
During his testimony, he told the court that, while still naked, he punched Ms McRae before she grabbed a nearby lamp which she used to hit him on the shoulder.
They then wrestled for control of the lamp and its cord.
“The defendant explained that this was to stop her attack,” Judge Yehia said.
Valencia (pictured) sold his motorcycle for $2,000, borrowed $1,000 from friends, and bought a ticket, using his landlord’s credit card, back to Colombia.
Two days after the deadly attack, Valencia sent a series of Facebook messages to a friend in Spanish, the court was told (above, a digital mockup of the translated evidence read in court).
“He said he was scared and panicked and he was afraid she was going to strangle him.”
As they wrestled to the ground, Valencia pressed the cord against Ms McRae’s neck, telling the court that he “probably” watched her die.
He forcefully held her there for “a few seconds” until she stopped resisting, Valencia told the court.
Judge Yehia said she was satisfied with the forensic evidence that Ms McRae died due to asphyxiation caused by “neck compression”.
An autopsy indicated that he died from compression on the neck, which caused suffocation, in addition to noting that he had suffered a thyroid cartilage fracture.
In finding Valencia not guilty of murder, he pointed to key pieces of forensic evidence, including that a thyroid can be fractured with just 2kg of pressure.
Valencia had admitted that he killed Ms McRae during a violent altercation inside her Mount Street unit after paying her for sexual services.
In addition, he said that a person can become unconscious in just a few seconds.
The court also heard that Ms McRae had undergone surgery to shave her Adam’s apple, which could have made her more vulnerable to a thyroid cartilage fracture.
Two days after killing Ms. McRae, Valencia sent a message to a friend saying: ‘I threw my life away’ and that he was afraid of going to jail.
I’m embarrassed to tell anyone about this. I think I killed shit… I better go to Colombia before they catch me. But I can’t see her on the news,’ the message said.
‘I don’t know if she’s dead, but she must be after what happened.’
Héctor Enrique Valencia Valencia (pictured in red) returned to Colombia but was arrested in Aruba and extradited to Australia, where he has been in custody ever since.
Valencia sold his motorcycle for $2,000 and stole his landlord’s credit card to buy a plane ticket back to Colombia before he was later arrested in Aruba, which has an extradition agreement with Australia.
He was taken back to Sydney in police custody to stand trial and was found not guilty of murder on Friday afternoon.
Wearing a green prison uniform, Valencia listened to Judge Yehia’s two-hour trial through a Spanish translator and did not react because he was found not guilty.
Valencia will face a sentencing trial for manslaughter in May.