Yanfei Bao's killer Tingjun Cao removed from court after interrupting sentencing
Tingjun Cao is removed from court on Friday.
Photo:
CHRIS SKELTON
The man who murdered Christchurch real estate agent Yanfei Bao has been removed from his own sentencing hearing after constant outbursts and interjections.
Chinese national Tingjun Cao attacked Bao in July 2023 after luring her to a Hornby home she was selling, before killing her and burying her body in farmland.
He continues to protest his innocence, blaming a fictional Mr Tang for the murder.
Justice Preston closed the court to the public this morning following Cao's outbursts.
Photo:
CHRIS SKELTON
As the sentencing hearing began this morning, Cao would interrupt in Mandarin and gesticulate towards his lawyers.
He made protestations about evidence he claimed would demonstrate his innocence, leading to Justice Lisa Preston closing the court to the public to address his outbursts.
However, when court resumed, Cao again leapt to his feet and began interrupting in Mandarin.
As a result, Justice Preston ordered Cao be removed from the court.
As Corrections officers escorted him from the court, he continued speaking loudly and gesticulating.
His final protest came as he ripped up his papers, bundled them into a ball and threw them to the ground.
His seven-week jury trial last year was also marked by Cao's odd displays.
He sacked his defence lawyers during the trial and represented himself with the help of a trio of interpreters.
Justice Lisa Preston repeatedly warned Cao about asking irrelevant questions, making meandering and repetitive statements, and accusing witnesses of lying.
The prosecution described the case against Cao as an "absolute slam dunk" with compelling and overwhelming evidence demonstrating his guilt.
However, Cao claimed he was at the centre of a conspiracy and police officers had lied, fabricated, planted and doctored evidence to frame him.
In delivering his closing argument he regularly turned and spoke to the glass panes of an empty dock and at other times rambled through measurements and minutiae which were difficult to link to his claims of innocence or the case.
Cao lured the 44-year-old Yanfei Bao to the Hornby home on 19 July 2023 under the pretence of wanting to view the property.
There he attacked her, bundled her into the boot of his car and drove her to a remote rural road near Lincoln where he killed her.
He buried her in a shallow grave along the treeline of a farm in Greenpark where police found her remains almost a year later.
Bao's partner, Paul Gooch, reported her missing the day she vanished after discovering his wife had not collected her daughter from an after-school programme, had not come home for lunch and calls to her phone went unanswered.
Police found Bao's phone in grass beside the southern motorway two days later.
Cao was arrested on his way to Christchurch Airport in the days after her disappearance with a one-way ticket to Shanghai.
He was initially charged with Bao's kidnapping but the charged was later dropped. Cao was charged with murder in September 2023.
Following the jury's guilty verdict Gooch yelled at Cao: "You might want to get a refund on that plane ticket you scum bag".
The Sentencing Act contained a presumption convicted murderers would be sentenced to life imprisonment unless such a sentence was manifestly unjust.
If Justice Preston sentenced to life, Cao would spend no less than a decade behind bars, but the judge could also engage section 104 of Sentencing Act which allowed judges to impose a non-parole period of at least 17 years for particularly egregious murders.
Cao is now watching his sentencing hearing from another courtroom.
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