A Sydney man who stabbed his niece to death and dumped her body in a blowhole has been jailed for at least 34-and-a-half years.
Derek Barrett, 29, previously pleaded guilty to murdering Chinese university student Mengmei Leng, whose naked body was found floating in the blowhole at Snapper Point on the NSW Central Coast in April 2016.
‘This was a despicable crime of extreme brutality and great wickedness,’ Justice Helen Wilson said at the NSW Supreme Court on Friday when sentencing Barrett to 46 years in jail with a non-parole period of 34 years and six months.
Derek Barrett (pictured) was sentenced to 46 years in jail with a non-parole period of 34 years and six months on Friday for the ‘brutal’ murder of his niece Mengmei Leng
Barrett previously pleaded guilty to murdering Chinese university student Mengmei Leng, whose naked body was found floating face down inside the blowhole.
The former IT worker also pleaded guilty to another 21 offences including 19 counts of filming Ms Leng for sexual gratification when she was bound and gagged before her death.
Ms Leng, 25, had lived with Barrett, her aunt and her cousin in the southwest Sydney suburb of Campsie since arriving in Australia to study, five years before her murder.
At the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday Barrett claimed he was drug affected when he killed Ms Leng and can only remember having an argument with her then seeing blood in the sink.
Barrett later dumped Ms Leng’s body in a blowhole before going to Campsie police station the following day with his wife (pictured) to report his niece missing
Ms Leng, 25, (pictured) was stabbed to death and dumped on NSW Central Coast in April 2016
‘You have no idea how it frustrates me every day trying to think of how this came about and why I went down this path,’ he said.
Alongside his wife, Barrett reported his niece missing at Campsie police station a day after the violent murder, the publication reported.
The 29-year-old, who told the Supreme Court he was sexually attracted to his Chinese niece, pleaded guilty to murdering Ms Leng in April 2016 in NSW.
The university student’s naked body was later found wrapped in a plastic sheet and floating face down inside the blowhole on the New South Wales Central Coast.
Ms Leng (pictured) was gagged and bound by Barrett in early morning when her aunt was away
‘I betrayed my own family and hers for my actions,’ Barrett said at the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday during his sentencing hearing.
‘I disgust myself.’
Barrett admitted he was sexually attracted to Ms Leng.
‘She was a pretty girl,’ he said.
Barrett gagged and bound Ms Leng to her bed in the early hours of April 22 while his wife away, agreed facts said.
He then took 19 photos of her naked body.
Barrett (left) pleaded guilty to killing his niece (right) because he was sexually attracted to her
At some point over the next two days, Barrett stabbed Ms Leng multiple times, inflicting a fatal stab wound to the throat.
He then took seven photos of the area before driving to his parents’ house nearby and later returning to Sydney.
Barrett told the court he only has flashes of memory from that weekend – an argument, his face reflected in the mirror and seeing blood in the sink.
He said he’d been on an ice binge before killing Ms Leng, which affected his memory.
He admitted initially lying to police because he ‘couldn’t figure out what exactly happened until a little later.’
‘With the memory gaps I basically filled them in with lies,’ he said.
Barrett (far right), an IT worker, drove Ms Leng’s naked body to Snapper Point, north of Sydney