EXCLUSIVE

DEREK Barrett, accused of the stabbing murder of his niece, 25-year-old Chinese student Michelle Leng and dumping her body in the Snapper Point blowhole, is finding prison “very unpleasant”.

Mr Barrett’s lawyer William Whitby told news.com.au that his client is in the Silverwater prison’s remand centre in western Sydney, where more than a thousand criminals are awaiting trial.

The 28-year-old former IT worker is set to spend Christmas and January in Silverwater where summer temperatures can soar to more than 40C.

Mr Barrett allegedly stabbed Mengmei “Michelle” Leng at least 20 times in April before dumping her body in the ocean 100km away on the NSW Central Coast.

He is facing a further 27 charges of indecency, kidnap and filming private parts without consent, after detectives allegedly found images on Mr Barrett’s phone of him masturbating over her as she slept.

Other images allegedly show him filming her showering in the Campsie home they shared with her aunt, and Ms Leng, naked, bound and gagged on her bed.

Mr Whitby said previously that Mr Barrett had not been coping well with incarceration, and had been “very upset, shocked” and “not finding the Sydney Police Centre particularly attractive” after his arrest in May.

“It’s a terrible place to be incarcerated and I can only hope he will be moved in the near future,” Mr Whitby said.

But at a brief hearing at Burwood Local Court this week, Mr Whitby said Mr Barrett’s move to Silverwater had not improved his conditions.

He told Burwood magistrate Jacqueline Trad that Mr Barrett’s case would be delayed by Silverwater prison’s cancellation of a psychiatric examination of the accused.

The former IT worker may apply for bail next year.

He married Ms Leng’s aunt in 2012 and the couple, along with Ms Leng and her cousin lived in the aunt’s Campsie flat in southwestern Sydney.

Mr Whitby has earlier indicated that Mr Barrett will be pleading “absolutely ... not guilty”.

A tourist spotted Ms Leng’s naked body floating face down in the Snapper Point blowhole in the Lake Munmorah National Park on the morning of Sunday, April 24.

She remained unidentified for three days as police issued a computer generated image of her face.

On April 25, Ms Leng’s relatives lodged a missing persons report with a photo that detectives matched to the computer image, and went to the Campsie home to collect a toothbrush and hair samples for DNA analysis.

She was last been seen by friends at a bus stop outside the University of Technology, where she was studying a translation course.

Michelle Leng's mother Mei Zhang breaks down speaking of her dead daughter Michelle Leng's mother Mei Zhang breaks down speaking of her dead daughter

A regular poster on Instagram, Ms Leng appeared to have a happy and positive approach to life.

She posted pictures of her “beautiful mum” back in Chengdu, China and her Chinese and Australian friends.

Photographs and video record her visits to local tourist spots including Sydney Harbour and, three years ago, to the same blowhole where her body would be found.

Last August, Ms Leng posted her aunt’s 2012 wedding photo in which she poses, smiling, in a silk dress, with the accused in his groom’s dinner suit.

Other photographs show Ms Leng and Mr Barrett in the same frame with his family members last Christmas, and with Mr Barrett, her aunt and cousin at Chinese New Year 2015.

In a New Year’s Eve 2015 post, Ms Leng posted a photograph of herself dressed up wishing for “A better 2016”.

Following her daughter’s alleged murder, Mei Zhang flew to Sydney and gave a press conference.

Describing her deep relationship with her daughter, Ms Zhang said “we even today still cannot accept the fact that she has left us” and she wept.