Firstly, we regret that every member of the jury were Australians from a Caucasian background when the trial related to an alleged murder of an Asian girl by a Caucasian male. Secondly, it is difficult to understand the accused’s argument that he is suffering from hallucinations. The accused claimed that he was not mentally fit to stand trial. Even for a normal person, stress and tension of standing trial as an accused person would not be trivial. We understand that the court can stay the proceedings based on objective evidence from psychiatrist’s assessments but we are unable to understand how this trial could not continue when there had already been numerous previous psychological assessments where the accused was found to be fit to stand trial. In such case, how can we have any faith in the previous treatments and psychopathological assessments? The family of slain Korean student Eunji Ban are seen at the Brisbane Supreme Court. The purpose of a murder trial is to determine whether the accused is guilty or not guilty. But the accused pleaded that he was not guilty from the first date of the trial on September 25, 2017, on the basis that he was having hallucinations and/or split personality disorder. Then the focus of the trial shifted to whether the accused was having these mental issues and whether he was fit to stand trial.

The accused’s fitness was magnified over the primary purpose of the trial. This trial is about our daughter’s death and the intentions of the accused at the time of the murder and not his current mental status or conditions. And if the accused did not have sound mentality at the time of the offence, shouldn’t someone who neglected him take some responsibility? The accused being taken into a mental health facility feels like he is being looked after rather than being punished for what he did to our daughter. Consequently, we now have to wait again with our grief from our daughter’s death and additional suffering from the stay of the trial. The indictment will be filed again and we will endure until the end when justice is served and when the accused sincerely accepts responsibility and be punished for his wrongdoing. Loading We may have different perspectives as foreigners and as parents of the victim. We are nevertheless thankful that we were able to witness how the matter progressed when all things were vague, living on the other side of the globe. We also saw our daughter’s shrine of remembrance and the tree which grew as time passed. We saw our daughter’s photos and flowers left there and it appeared someone was looking after it. It was heartwarming to see that many people still cared about our daughter with love and interest. We are also grateful to Her Honour Justice Dalton, who thought hard to give the fairest judgment, the Prosecutor David Meredith who did his best and always explained to us in detail, Birnie from Victim Support Service and many others.

Having someone to rely on whilst staying in Australia strengthened us to continue with this very tough and upsetting journey. Loading It is heartbreaking and painful having to return home without seeing the final verdict and our daughter rest in peace. This grief and pain will not fade and she will never be replaceable. We will yet continue to try to live with smiles and thankfulness every day. Because today, tomorrow and each days are days our daughter Eunji wanted to live happily. And our daughter would not want us to cry and grieve every day.

Our best and only option for Eunji is to live a full life, and when we meet again, we can tell her with laughter that we have lived well. We know and still believe that justice will be served and Eunji will rest in peace when we continue to give our best in life. Eunji Ban’s parents Hyeonggyu Ban and Sukbun Jung.