June Oh Seo was described by murdered woman Hee Kyung Choi’s father as a ‘shameless beast’ for 2017 murder

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A heartbroken father has told a judge the man who bashed and strangled his daughter, then threw her off her Sydney unit balcony, is a “shameless beast with a human face”.

Jusuk Choi broke down repeatedly on Friday while reading out his victim impact statement, which was then translated from Korean to English, at the NSW supreme court.

Justice Helen Wilson sentenced June Oh Seo, 38, to 16 years and 10 months for murdering Hee Kyung Choi, 34, at Chatswood in October 2017.

“Like too many women before her, Ms Choi died because the man with whom she had been involved could not accept her right to autonomy,” Wilson said.

“The offender acted from a profound sense of entitlement, clearly believing that Ms Choi had to conform to his wishes rather than pursue her own.

“The offender’s crime is one seen with distressing frequency.”

Hee Kyung Choi’s body lay in a laneway for 12 hours before Seo was arrested after a stand-off with police when he climbed onto a perspex balcony roof at the top of the block.

“She may have died as a consequence of impact with the ground; although it is possible that, prior to casting her from the balcony, the offender strangled Ms Choi to death, or to unconsciousness,” the judge said.

Jusuk Choi asked how someone could take his daughter’s life “so cruelly and brutally” and then tell police she killed herself by jumping off the balcony.

He said he was brought to tears looking at the joy on his daughter’s face in a photo taken with a mayor when she received Australian citizenship months before her murder.

His wife and their son were shattered at her being murdered by “a shameless beast with a human face”.

“Because of this pain, we are only hoping each day of living hell passes quickly so we can meet our daughter who we miss so much,” he said.

His daughter, who worked in the finance industry, and Seo, a painter, began an intimate relationship in March 2017 and travelled to South Korea the next month to meet each other’s parents.

“In a relatively short time Ms Choi found that the offender was possessive and controlling of her,” the judge said.

“She told friends that he did not like her seeing male friends or clients of the bank for which she worked, and wanted to know her movements at all times.”

With “tragic prescience”, Choi told a friend: “He is not violent but I wonder if he can turn violent later on.”

When she tried to break up, he got onto one knee and begged her not to, saying he had no one but her and would die if she left him. When she did break it off, he moved out on 13 August but kept in contact and stayed over on the weekend of 7 October.

During an argument, he punched Ms Choi to the face a number of times with such force that he broke a bone in his hand and bruised his knuckles, before throwing her over the balcony railing.

“As Ms Choi’s father said in the family’s victim impact statement, a young life full of promise, a life that is given only once, was violently cut short,” Justice Wilson said.

At the time Seo was on a bond for assaulting his pregnant ex-wife and breaching an AVO.

“This was a brutal crime, committed as a consequence of the offender’s enraged inability to accept that Ms Choi had a life of her own, and a right to make her own choices.”

She set a maximum term of 22 years and six months.