By Michael Morrah
A Chinese student who helped plan the brutal killing of a 19-year-old he had befriended has been sent to jail for at least 17 years.
Honglin Yu was a top student in China and came to New Zealand as a 16-year-old to learn English.
Last year he and another student, Yongxin Li, murdered Jiyai Li and left her body in the back of her car.
Jiyai Li, known as Kiko, was stabbed 22 times before her body was left in her boot. The motive for the murder was money.
The judge said he struggled to explain such callous offending and cannot understand why Yu and Li would commit murder. He suggested it could have been because they lacked direction and support when arriving in New Zealand.
“It’s evident that you and many other who come to New Zealand on student visas habitually spend aimless hours in the company of friends, at internet cafes or pool halls. During the formative years between 16 and 20 you do not appear to have had any moral compass,” the judge told Yu.
“Some explanation might be found in the fact that at a young and impressionable age you were sent to New Zealand with the best of intentions but without any parental support,” he said.
Kiko's killers were both living with different home-stay families in Auckland when they planned the murder, but it is unknown what level of support they received from those families.
Yu. who is 20, will not be released from jail until his mid 30s. After that he will be deported back to China.
3 News