father speaks of family’s grief over daughter’s murder

He said Seo formed the opinion that Ms Choi died after he strangled her, then threw her over the balcony, but “couldn’t make a positive determination that she was actually dead at that stage”.

“This is an extreme outburst of violence that wasn’t consistent with his overall past behaviour,” Mr Austin said.

According to agreed facts, Seo has a history of domestic violence and was verbally abusive, physically violent and controlling towards his ex-wife, including while she was pregnant.

Three months before she died, Ms Choi said in messages to a friend that Seo didn’t like her meeting with male clients or having male friends, and he is “not violent but I wonder if he can turn violent later on”.

She said she wanted to keep some distance, because she was “afraid that something might happen to my life if I continue this relationship”.

In his victim impact statement, Ms Choi’s father Jusuk Choi cried and wiped his eyes as he talked about his daughter moving to Australia from Korea, initially to study and later working in banks.

He said his daughter – a hard worker with a bright and kind smile – regularly chatted to family in Korea in video calls, including her brother’s children. The children now beg to talk to their aunt on the phone again.

“We can’t tell them,” Mr Choi said. “Our family’s pain is beyond description.”

Mr Choi said he had to ask Seo, out of desperation, “why on earth and what for he sent our Hee Kyung to a place of no return”.

“How can he take away someone’s life so cruelly and brutally, a life that is given only once? Just because he wasn’t able to have his own way? My family is at a loss for words,” he said.

“We are going through each painful day feeling guilty that we couldn’t protect our child.”

Mr Choi looked directly at Seo, who sat in the dock with his head bowed, as he said the killer’s false statement to police was “totally devoid of good conscience” and “astonishing”.

“How could he behave as if it was all Hee Kyung’s fault although he killed her so brutally, unless he is a shameless beast with a human face?”

Seo is due to be sentenced later today.