Days after killing a sex worker and leaving her body to rot inside her Sydney eastern suburbs flat, Colombian student Hector Enrique Valencia Valencia sent his friend a message.
It read: ‘I better go Colombia before they catch me, I cannot see her in the news.’
Kimberley McRae’s badly decomposing body was discovered inside her Coogee flat on January 14, 2020 when a concerned relative contacted her real estate agent over growing concerns about her welfare.
Attempts to contact her had proven unsuccessful. When her property manager entered the flat, she was hit by what she described as an overwhelming smell.
When police entered the unit, they found Ms McRae’s body covered in a doona, with a pillow over her head and part of a lamp cord around her neck.
Kimberley McRae’s badly decomposing body was discovered inside her Coogee flat on January 14, 2020 when a concerned relative contacted her real estate agent over growing concerns about her welfare
Hector Enrique Valencia Valencia is standing trial over the alleged murder of sex worker Kimberley McRae in her Coogee flat
A discarded condom was found nearby and her blood was found on the pillow.
Valencia had admitted he killed Ms McRae during a violent altercation inside her Mount Street unit after paying her for sexual services.
He pleaded guilty to her manslaughter.
Valencia, 23, also pleaded not guilty to her murder, arguing he had no intention to kill her or cause her grievous bodily harm when he pressed down on her neck with a lamp cord until she stopped resisting.
He is waiting to learn his fate, with a judge scheduled to next week hand down her decision following a seven-day Supreme Court trial.
WHAT HAPPENED INSIDE THE MOUNT STREET UNIT
At the time of her killing, Ms McRae offered her sexual services on classified website Locanto.
Valencia responded to an advertisement in which she advertised herself as a 38-year-old blonde ‘MILF with G-cup breasts’.
The trial centred on the events inside Ms McRae’s home between 3.35pm and 4.15pm on the afternoon of 8 January, 2020.
Valencia admitted he lost control when he discovered that Ms McRae was transsexual.
After paying her $100, he took off his clothes and sat on the bed, where Ms McRae performed oral sex for about five to 10 minutes.
Hector Enrique Valencia Valencia (pictured in red) returned to Colombia but was arrested in Aruba and extradited back to Australia where he has been in custody ever since
Valencia had admitted he killed Ms McRae during a violent altercation inside her Mount Street unit after paying her for sexual services
During his evidence, he told the court: ‘I started becoming suspicious that the person could be transgender.
‘Because of the breasts and the physical appearance.’
He told Justice Dina Yehia that he felt ‘lied to’ and ‘upset’ before he started the fatal altercation.
Ms McRae denied the accusation three times before admitting it when Valencia had asked a fourth time ‘in a loud voice’, the court heard.
Valencia has admitted he attacked Ms McRae when he punched her in the stomach and face.
Valencia, who was in Australia on a student visa and studying at a Surry Hills business college, told the court he was upset because his religious beliefs specified ‘it was not normal that I had sexual intimacy with another man’.
The court heard that during the altercation, Ms McRae grabbed a lamp, with Valencia claiming that he was ‘scared’ that she would choke him.
His barrister Claire Wasley argued that Valencia, who was still naked, wanted to leave but Ms McRae was between him and the doorway.
During the altercation on the ground, they struggled over a piece of the lamp’s electrical cable which he pressed against her neck.
Two days after the deadly attack, Valencia sent a series of Facebook messages to a friend in Spanish, the court was told (above, a digital mock-up of the translated evidence read out in court)
‘I tried to put the cable on her neck, the front part of her neck,’ he said during his evidence.
The court heard that he held the cord there until she stopped struggling.
He maintained he acted in self defence and admitted that he ‘probably’ watched her die.
MURDER OR MANSLAUGHTER?
To prove the defence of murder, the prosecution must prove that Valencia had an intention to either cause serious harm to or kill Ms McRae.
Crown Prosecutor Craig Everson SC argued that by choking his victim until she stopped breathing, he exhibited ‘the intention to cause really serious injury’.
After killing her, Valencia threw sheets over Ms McRae’s body, claiming it was ‘in case she was conscious’ and tried to attack him, the court heard.
He also threw three of her mobile phones in the toilet.
The court heard that when he returned home, he told his landlord that he had been out looking for jobs.
Forensic pathologist Dr Allan Cala told the trial that he had arrived at the conclusion that Ms McRae likely died as a result of a combination of smothering and a fractured thyroid cartilage.
Three days after leaving Ms McRae for dead, Valencia fled Australia.
He sent messages via social media to a friend in Spanish, with Mr Everson telling the court that one of the messages translated to say: ‘You are one of the few I can trust. And the truth is tomorrow I am travelling to Colombia. I threw my life away, dude. I am escaping because I don’t want to finish in jail in Australia.’
The messages continued: ‘I die of shame to tell this to anybody. I believe I killed a whore … I better go Colombia before they catch me, I cannot see her in the news, I don’t know if she is dead, but she must be after what happened.’
After selling his motorcycle for $2000, he bought a ticket, using his landlord’s credit card, back to Colombia.
He was eventually arrested in Aruba and was flown back to Australia under police guard to face trial.
The court has heard that while he was in custody, officers discovered a letter addressed to then Attorney-General Christian Porter.
‘I am a young migrant who did not know how to handle a situation that changed abruptly from a night of passion to a night of madness and confrontation,’ Mr Valencia wrote in the letter.
He also said he was afraid of being deported or facing ‘public embarrassment’ over his role in Ms McRae’s death.
‘In my capacity as a foreigner, I was also afraid of a scandal,’ he wrote.
However, his defence has argued that large swathes of the document were prepared by a relative in Colombia.
Valencia is scheduled to on Friday face the Supreme Court again when Judge Dina Yehia will hand down her judgment.
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