There has been an angry reaction after a man who killed two women in Melbourne was sentenced to just 14 years behind bars. The killer struck a deal to significantly reduce his sentence.
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00:00Hiding his face, Xia Zhenglin killed two women but could be released from jail in just seven
00:09years.
00:10To get such a short sentence for that just almost seems unbelievable.
00:16It's just not taking our life seriously.
00:20Lin brutally took the lives of two sex workers in these Melbourne CBD apartments in late
00:25December 2022.
00:27The first woman, Yuki Lo, was strangled to death inside her home.
00:32The second, Hyun Suk Jeon, was also killed within 24 hours.
00:36She was found inside days later with a towel wrapped around her head.
00:41Lin left the women to die, taking cash and bank cards to pay off his gambling debts.
00:48Today Ms Jeon's family was in court as the killer was sentenced to a maximum of 14 years
00:53for both deaths.
00:54She showed them no mercy.
00:56You have not expressed or displayed any remorse, Justice Stephen Kaye said.
01:01With time already served, 24-year-old Lin could be released as early as 2031.
01:07The main reason Lin's sentence was so low was the manslaughter plea deal that was struck
01:12with prosecutors.
01:13Lin was originally charged with murder, which would have carried a much heftier jail sentence.
01:19The community believed that again the system just failed us and not see our occupation
01:25as a job.
01:26Prosecutors are refusing to explain why they lowered the charges from murder to manslaughter,
01:30but the deal meant the case could progress quickly through the court system.
01:34We decriminalised sex work in this state so that women and sex workers would feel more
01:41confident about reporting crime.
01:43This sentence has sent the opposite message to them.