A mother in New Zealand who murdered her two children and hid their bodies in suitcases at a depository has been sentenced to life in prison.
Hakyung Lee was found guilty over the shocking murders of eight-year-old Yuna Jo and six-year-old Minu Jo.
The 45-year-old claimed that she was not well at the time of the killings in 2018, which happened shortly after her husband died.
High Court judge Geoffrey Venning said Lee’s mental health played a crucial part in the case, but her actions were keenly analyzed.
Lee showed little emotions as she sat in court, curtsying her head with eyes fixed to the floor as the judge pronounced the sentence.
Her trial lasted for more than two weeks. Defense lawyers told the court that her mental health degenerated after Jo’s death, and that she came to believe that dying together was the perfect solution for the rest of the family.
Lee made an attempt to kill herself and her children by giving them a dose of antidepressant nortriptyline mixed in juice. However, she got the dose wrong and woke up to find her children were dead, according to her lawyers.
According to prosecutors, Lee’s act was a “selfish act to free herself from the burden of parenting alone.”
However, Lee changed her name after the killings and left New Zealand. She was arrested in South Korea, where she was born, and was repatriated back to New Zealand later that year.
Prosecutors’ mother released an emotional statement, Lee’s mother Choon Ja Lee, said that she felt remorse for not taking her daughter to a counsellor, adding that Lee had no will to live after Jo died of cancer in November 2017.
Lee was experiencing atypical depression and persistent complex bereavement disorder at the time of murders, in line with a psychiatric assessment conducted before the sentencing.
Justice Venning issued an order that Lee be treated as a “special patient” during her imprisonment.
He stated, “You could not cope when your husband became seriously unwell, and perhaps you could not bear to have the children around you as a constant reminder of your former happy life.”
Her lawyers presented a mental health defense following her husband’s death, but the jury specifically rejected this defense.
In addition, sentencing brings to a close a high-profile and tragic case that gained international recognition.
