Two sex workers killed in 24 hours in Melbourne, Xiaozheng Lin pleads guilty

Xiaozheng Lin has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of two sex workers in Melbourne. Photo / Victoria Police

Prosecutors have accepted manslaughter pleas from a man who killed two sex workers within 24 hours, and then stole cash and designer handbags.

An enraged Xiaozheng Lin strangled a woman in her Melbourne apartment after she asked for more money while performing sex work.

“I did bring her under my control and force,” he told police after his arrest.

But his killing spree was not over yet.

About 24 hours later, the 22-year-old killed a second sex worker in her home.

He left the two women - Yuqi Luo, 31, and Hyun Sook Jeon, 51 - for dead after attacking them in December 2022, and stealing cash and personal belongings including designer handbags.

Lin, now aged 24, was due to face a murder trial over the two deaths in August.

However, one month before trial he offered to plead guilty to two charges of manslaughter, which prosecutors accepted. 

Details of the case have remained unreported since early 2023 due to a court gag order, which has since been lifted.

Lin remained silent and kept his head down as he faced the Supreme Court in Melbourne for a pre-sentence hearing on Monday.

He visited a brothel on Boxing Day 2022, before calling a friend to drive him to see Luo, a Chinese national who operated a sex work business from her Melbourne apartment.

Lin told his friend he planned to rob Luo, as he had recently lost money gambling with TAB.

He was dropped near her apartment after midnight on December 26, when he showered and had sex with Luo.

Afterwards, he asked her for oral sex but she refused to do so for no additional cost.

Lin became enraged at Luo and pressed her into the bed, but she fought back and bit Lin on the hand.

He hit Ms Luo and strangled her, later telling police he was mad at her request for a further A$100 payment.

Lin left her for dead, stealing A$7000 in cash, her phone and several designer handbags.

“She was gasping for air and I thought, OK today I had a robbery and I didn’t kill her,” he later told police. 

A friend of Luo’s called a locksmith and found her body, before calling emergency services.

The 31-year-old woman’s father, Luo Bo, said her death had been a “huge blow to my heart”.

“It’s extremely difficult to accept the cruel reality my daughter has been murdered,” he said in a statement read to court.

Less than 24 hours after attacking Luo, Lin went to see another sex worker, South Korean national Jeon who lived at a Docklands apartment.

After having sex, he fatally assaulted her and stole her laptop, bank cards, phone and building keys.

By the time Jeon’s body was found, she was too badly decomposed to identify a cause of death.

Lin told his barrister, Paul Smallwood, that Jeon was “assaulted in circumstances where she was seriously shaken”, the court was told.

Smallwood accepted his client was facing a lengthy prison stint and would be deported back to China.

Prosecutor Kristie Churchill said Lin’s offending was “subjectively serious”.

“He has caused the death of two vulnerable women in their own homes, a place that they were entitled to feel and be safe, within 24 hours of each other,” she told the court.

“He stole from them, he left them in positions with no regard for their safety and or dignity.”

Lin, who has been in custody since his arrest on December 29, 2022, will be sentenced at a later date.