Former taekwondo instructor Kwang Kyung Yoo has been jailed for life for what a judge has called the “senselessly cruel and cynical” murders of a husband, wife and young child in Sydney.Â
The 51-year-old’s crimes were today condemned by Justice Ian Harrison in the NSW Supreme Court as having been perpetrated “without a trace of human compassion or consideration” for his victims.
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Yoo, who was known as “Master Lion”, killed 41-year-old Min Cho and a seven-year-old boy at Lion’s Taekwondo and Martial Arts Academy in North Parramatta in February 2024.
He then took Ms Cho’s BMW, drove to her Baulkham Hills home, and fatally stabbed her 39-year-old husband, Steven Cho.
Yoo, who pleaded guilty to the murders, had told his wife he had been offered work at a school which would also supply him with a BMW.
The judge was satisfied the plan was premeditated and Yoo set out to do what he “irrationally believed was necessary” to acquire Ms Cho’s vehicle.
The bodies of a woman and child were found at a taekwondo studio in North Parramatta. (ABC News: Liam Patrick)
“Mr Yoo’s background reveals he felt burdened with the weight of parental, educational and cultural expectations that he would achieve and succeed at unrealistic levels, and conform with unattainable standards,” Justice Harrison said in sentencing on Tuesday.
But the judge was not convinced any of those matters diminished Yoo’s moral culpability.
“As sympathetic as one might be to the type of difficulties encountered by Mr Yoo in his developing years, they are not, in my experience, so extreme or so traumatic that they reduce Mr Yoo’s blameworthiness.”
Family impact statements
He imposed life sentences for all three murders, saying the reason for the murders was “wholly disproportionate” to the crimes.
The court previously heard victim impact statements from relatives who said their lives had been destroyed by the murders.
“Every moment we breathe is painful,” Ms Cho’s parents said in their statement.
“Being alive in itself feels like a punishment.”
Police at the scene where the bodies of a woman and child were found. (ABC News: Jessica Rendall)
Yoo wrote a letter of apology to the court in which he said, “not a day goes by” that he doesn’t remember and think about what he did.
“I know that I have been held captive by sin,” he said in the letter.
“I admit my sin and I want to turn from it and begin to follow God.”
He also said he was learning to live with his crimes and his only hope was that knowing he is “truly remorseful” may somehow help the victims’ families.
“I wish I could turn back time so this didn’t happen. I pray every day for the people I have hurt,” he wrote.
“I can’t express how truly sorry I am.”
According to the agreed facts, Yoo told a series of lies to falsely amplify his success and status in the eyes of others, including that he was an Olympian.
He inspected multi-million-dollar properties in Rose Bay and Vaucluse and discussed buying a Lamborghini and Bentley.
The facts point to an obsession with luxury items, social status and wealth.
A forensic psychologist previously told the court that Yoo engaged in “grandiose fantasy” to impress other people and make himself feel more psychologically secure.