Taekwondo teacher who killed 7-year-old student and boy’s parents jailed for life in Australia

A Sydney taekwondo coach was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Tuesday for killing a 7-year-old student and the boy’s parents.

Kwang Kyung Yoo, 51, sat with his head bowed as Judge Ian Harrison said he would never be eligible for parole.

The former coach, who was called Master Lion by his students, did not look at the family of the victims when he cried in court, reports 9News Australia. He was holding a Bible that was filled with notes during the sentence, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Harrison said Yoo was motivated by jealousy of the family’s financial success.

“I am satisfied that the level of culpability in the commission of these offenses is so extreme that the public interest in punishment, retribution, social protection and deterrence cannot be met by imposing a life sentence,” Harrison told the New South Wales Supreme Court.

Harrison said Yoo had no reason to kill the boy or his parents in February last year.

“These murders were heinous and violent acts, senselessly cruel and senseless, carried out without human compassion or consideration for the dignity of the Cho family,” Harrison said, according to news.au.

State law prohibits child victims of crime from being identified, so the boy’s parents will not be identified either.

Yoo and his victims were all born in South Korea.

Yoo pleaded guilty to three counts of murder when he appeared in court earlier. He had no prior criminal record.

Yoo strangled the boy and his 41-year-old mother at his Lion’s Taekwondo and Martial Arts Academy in Sydney’s west. He was tens of thousands of dollars in debt at the time and was behind on his rent at the school.

He took an Apple watch and drove his BMW car home where he stabbed and killed the 39-year-old boy’s father.

Yoo was injured in a struggle at home and drove himself to the hospital where he told the medical staff that he was attacked in the parking lot of a supermarket. The police arrested him at the hospital.

After his arrest, Yoo was unable to explain how he intended to get the family’s money and later elaborated on his remorse.

While the crime was being planned – Yoo guarded the family home beforehand – he made no attempt to hide his crime from the CCTV cameras at his school or try to hide the bodies.

The judge heard that Yoo had lied about qualifying for the 2000 Olympics, owning a Lamborghini and living in Sydney’s wealthiest suburbs, 9News Australia reported. He was sending emails to himself, pretending to be important people, to please his wife, the newspaper reported.

Harrison noted that Yoo had told the psychologist that his lies had gotten bigger as his wife and students asked more questions.

“I wanted to give him hope,” he told his psychiatrist, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. “However, over time it got really big and it didn’t stop. He was very happy.”

The judge noted that Yoo had struggled since childhood with unrealistic expectations from her parents and South Korean culture about the level of success she needed to achieve.

Yoo was handed a box of tissues as the judge expressed his deep remorse for the hurt and pain he had caused.

In a letter to the judge, Yoo said he was “caught up in sin” and wanted to surrender to Jesus Christ.

“I wish I could turn back time so this wouldn’t happen,” Yoo wrote. “I pray every day for the people I hurt.”

Yoo’s lawyers had argued that he should be given less time off the fine rather than life in prison without parole. The maximum sentence for a person convicted of murder in New South Wales is life imprisonment, with a standard non-parole period of 20 years for the murder of an adult and 25 years for the murder of a child.