Suitcase killings: Mum gets life sentence for murdering children, hiding bodies

An Auckland mother who murdered her son and daughter before hiding their bodies in suitcases has been sentenced to at least 17 years' jail.

Hakyung Lee was found guilty of murdering her children Yuna Jo and Minu Jo, at her trial by jury earlier this year.

She concealed their bodies inside suitcases, hidden inside a storage locker, before leaving the country.

The children were discovered almost four years later after the contents of the locker was bought in an online auction.

At her sentencing on Wednesday, she was handed a sentence of life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.

Lee sat in the dock, silent, with her head hung low, as she had done throughout her trial.

Lee represented herself in court during the trial. But the 45-year-old watched it unfold from a separate courtroom at the High Court at Auckland, aided by her interpreter.

Her standby counsel, Chris Wilkinson-Smith and Lorraine Smith, claimed the death of her husband, Ian Jo, in 2017 started a "deep descent" into mental illness which made her irrationally believe the only answer was to kill the children and then herself.

The Crown's position was Lee understood what she was doing and knew it was wrong.

Crown prosecutor Natalie Walker argued Lee's actions following the deaths of her children, including hiding their bodies and moving to South Korea, were calculated.

On Wednesday, the court heard a statement from Lee's mother, Choon Ja Lee, read aloud by a Crown lawyer in Korean and English.

She described the anguish after learning what had happened to her grandchildren

"It felt like a pain that cut through my bones, or as if someone were gauging out my chest," she said.

"I wanted to be free from suffering, but I had no one to lean on."

Choon Ja Lee said she had trouble sleeping, turning to alcohol to help.

She said she was ostracised by her church community after news broke of her daughter's actions.

"The treatment I received was unexpectedly cold, they did not welcome me but avoided me and I was met only with glances that showed they did not wish to speak to me," she said.

"I came to the realisation that among the church members I had been labelled as the mother of a murderer."

Choon Ja Lee's husband passed away, and her son-in-law moved to Australia where the two lost contact.

It got so bad, Choon Ja Lee said, she considered suicide.

"With no one to rely on I had thoughts of ending my life countless times," Choon Ja Lee said.

Choon Ja Lee spoke about the regret she felt in the wake of the murders, and how she wished she had acted sooner.

She said she deeply regretted not taking her daughter to a counsellor introduced to her by a friend.

"I keep thinking that if I had taken her at that time, this tragedy might have been prevented."

Despite it all, Choon Ja Lee said she still hoped her daughter would be eventually released from prison on parole.

Ian Jo's brother, Jimmy Sei Wook Jo, was present in the courtroom, but also had his statement read aloud by a lawyer.

"This situation is something I would expect to read about in a novel, or watch in a TV series," he said.

"I never imagined such a profound tragedy would ever befall our family."

Jo said he found it difficult to be near Asian children the same age as Minu and Yuna.

"When I see them I feel overwhelmed, as though they will ask me 'why didn't you stop this?'"

He carried a heavy, agonising guilt, he said.

Jo said he dared not tell his own mother about what happened, for fear it would kill her.

Walker pointed to the children's age and vulnerability as factors setting a minimum sentence, describing it as a gross breach of trust.

"Being only 6 and 8 at the time they were killed, their vulnerability was heightened by the fact that it was their sole surviving parent who killed them, having recently lost their father."

She proposed a minimum of 20 to 22 years in prison.

Wilkinson-Smith opened his submissions by saying he did not want to underplay the enormity of what Lee had done.

He said Lee lived in a world of shame for, effectively, the worst crime a mother could commit.

"She's shunned by her own community, she's threatened, and taunted, and ridiculed in prison," he said.

Justice Venning went through Lee's background, and the timeline leading up to the children's death.

He said Lee's mental health played a major part of the case.

An updated psychiatric report had been carried out before sentencing, which indicated Lee was likely suffering from an atypical depression and prolonged grief reaction at the time of the murders.

Justice Venning concluded Lee killed her children because she could not cope with the burden and responsibility of caring for them after her husband's death, influenced by her depression.

"You relied heavily on him during your marriage, you could not cope when he became seriously unwell, and perhaps you could not bear to have the children around you as a constant reminder of your former happy life, which had been cruelly taken from you."

Justice Venning ruled Lee be sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years, but ordered she be treated as a special patient under the Criminal Procedure Mentally Impaired Persons Act.

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