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Taekwondo instructor Kwang Kyung Yoo has been sentenced to life in prison for the brutal murders of a married couple and their seven-year-old son in Sydney’s west so he could seize their BMW.
Yoo held a bible stuffed with personal notes on his lap and hung his head throughout proceedings in the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday morning, and sniffled when asked to stand for his sentence to be delivered. The family and friends of his victims choked back sobs.
Kwang Kyung Yoo has been sentenced to life in prison with no parole.Credit: Rocco Fazzari
Justice Ian Harrison said he was satisfied Yoo had planned to kill Min Kyung Cho, 41, Hyun Soo “Steven” Cho, 39, and their son to obtain their car, having scoped out their premises on four separate occasions in the weeks prior and informing his wife that a new BMW was due to come into their possession on the morning that he murdered them.
But his planning did not extend to covering his tracks by changing number plates, avoiding CCTV cameras or coming up with a convincing lie about the injuries he sustained in the stabbing attack on Steven.
“Mr Yoo did not appear to give any thought to avoiding detection,” Harrison said.
“On the contrary, Mr Yoo took and wore Ms Cho’s Apple Watch which could easily be tracked.
Taekwondo instructor Kwang Kyung Yoo has been sentenced to life in prison.
“These killings were horrific and violent acts, senselessly cruel and cynical.”
Yoo, whose students knew him as “Master Lion”, killed the family of three on February 19, 2024, after telling his wife that morning that he would be taking home a BMW that night. He said it was part of a salary package that he had been offered by the principal of Epping Boys High for taking on more teaching hours, but this was a lie.
He strangled Min Kyung Cho in a store room at Lion’s Taekwondo Martial Arts Academy in North Parramatta after taking her son’s class. He then killed the boy by strangulation between other classes.
Min Cho, Taekwondo instructor Kwang Kyung Yoo, and Steven Cho.
Afterwards, he called his wife to tell her that he had got the car.
He then drove their BMW to the family’s apartment in Baulkham Hills and stabbed Steven Cho to death.
Brought up in South Korea, Yoo had no criminal history and had led an otherwise unremarkable life until the murders.
There was no evidence of a psychiatric or personality disorder. Yoo told justice health officers shortly after the murders the Cho family were nice people and his feelings towards them did not change.
But he had told his wife that they were getting a BMW and felt he had to continue the lie.
“I wanted to give her hope,” he told his psychiatrist. “However, over time it became bigger and bigger and didn’t stop. She was so happy.”
Harrison found Yoo was genuinely remorseful for his crimes, unlike many murderers who proclaim regret out of self-interest, but the crimes were at the high end of objective seriousness and it was in the interests of the wider community for retribution to be served.
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