The New South Wales Supreme Court has sentenced taekwondo instructor Kwang Kyung Yoo, 51, to life imprisonment without parole after he pleaded guilty to murdering a 7-year-old student and the child’s parents in February last year. The judge said Yoo was driven by jealousy over the family’s wealth and described the killings as senseless and devoid of compassion. Yoo strangled the child and the mother at his western Sydney academy, stole the mother’s Apple Watch and BMW, and stabbed the father at their home; he was arrested after falsely claiming he had been attacked. Yoo expressed remorse, but the court concluded only a whole-life sentence would meet community protection and deterrence needs.
Sydney Taekwondo Instructor Given Whole‑Life Sentence After Killing Student and Parents
Victim's family and friends leave the New South Wales Supreme Court in Sydney, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (Dan Himbrechts/AAP Image via AP)
A New South Wales Supreme Court judge has sentenced 51-year-old taekwondo instructor Kwang Kyung Yoo to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole after he pleaded guilty to murdering a 7-year-old student and the child’s parents in February last year.
What Happened
Justice Ian Harrison told the court that Yoo would never be eligible for parole, saying the level of culpability was so extreme that only a life sentence could satisfy the community’s need for retribution, protection and deterrence.
“These killings were horrific and violent acts, senselessly cruel and cynical, perpetrated without a trace of human compassion,” the judge said.
The court heard that Yoo strangled the 7-year-old and the child’s 41-year-old mother inside his Lion’s Taekwondo and Martial Arts Academy in western Sydney. He took the mother’s Apple Watch and drove her BMW to the family home, where he stabbed the 39-year-old father to death. After being injured in a struggle at the house, Yoo drove himself to hospital and falsely told staff he had been attacked in a supermarket car park; police arrested him there.
Motive, Background And Behaviour
Justice Harrison said Yoo’s actions were motivated by jealousy over the family’s financial success. At the time of the killings, Yoo was tens of thousands of dollars in debt and behind on rent for his academy.
Prosecutors and psychological reports also described a long pattern of deception: Yoo had fabricated meetings with prominent figures, falsely claimed Olympic qualification and boasted of owning luxury possessions to impress his wife and students. He sometimes emailed himself pretending to be important people and used the honorific “professor.”
Although Yoo surveilled the family’s home beforehand, he made no attempt to hide the killings on his academy CCTV or to conceal the bodies, the court heard.
Remorse And Sentencing Argument
Yoo pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and expressed remorse in a letter read to the court, writing that he had been "held captive by sin," that he wanted to give himself to Jesus, and that he wished he could turn back time. The judge accepted he showed remorse but concluded it did not diminish the extreme culpability of the crimes.
Yoo’s lawyers had asked the court to impose a minimum non-parole period rather than a whole-life order. Under New South Wales law the maximum penalty for murder is life imprisonment; standard non-parole periods are commonly 20 years for adult victims and 25 years for child victims.
Note: State law prevents the identification of child victims of crime, so the child and his parents are not named in court records.
