A German backpacker has been jailed for five years for strangling a sex worker with his clothes.
Jingai Zhang, 49, died on Boxing Day 2020 while having sex with Tobias Peake, 27, in Launceston, Tasmania.
After she died, Pik Zhang, now 29, stole $1,604 in cash and her phone, which she dumped in a river.
He was initially charged with murder, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
The Launceston High Court heard Ms Peek Zhang had been traveling around Australia with her girlfriend more than a year before her death.
Mercury told the court that he had paid her for sex once before her death, but at that time she refused his request to sexually asphyxiate her.
The court heard Peake went to see Ms Zhang again on Boxing Day after an argument with his girlfriend, and this time he consented to strangling her.
At first he choked her with his hand, but then they switched positions so Pik was behind Ms Zhang, the court heard.
He then handed her his shirt to hold her throat.
“He didn’t realize he was struggling to breathe,” Peake’s defense attorney Olivia Jenkins said, adding that her client was “deeply sorry” for fleeing the scene with the victim’s possessions.
The prosecutor, Elizabeth Avery, told the court that Ms. Zhang asked for a mild strangulation to “enhance sexual pleasure,” but not as strong as Peak said.
Later, Ms. Zhang’s boyfriend found her body.
Sentencing Picca on Tuesday, Judge Robert Pearce said his “posthumous conduct increased the seriousness of the offence”.
“Consent does not justify or excuse the acts that lead to death,” the judge said, according to the lawsuit. ABC.
The court heard earlier that a forensic pathologist said Ms Zhang’s neck was subjected to significant force for at least a minute, which could have caused bruising and bleeding.
Ms Zhang’s husband, David Simmons, said in a victim impact statement read to the court that he did not know his wife was having sex or that she had another boyfriend.
Mr Simmons said he was “kind, caring, always concerned about others”.
Pike wept as the details of his crime were read out in court.
Ms Jenkins said Peake had shown “great remorse” and had no previous criminal record.
His five-year sentence has been backdated to December 28, 2020.
He will be eligible for parole in June 2023.
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