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Man jailed for 'positively evil' rape and murder of Hong Kong pastry chef in Melbourne
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 02 May, 2015, 12:15am
UPDATED : Saturday, 02 May, 2015, 12:17am
Jennifer Ngo
Pastry chef Renea Lau was raped and murdered on her way to work in Melbourne. Photo: SCMP Pictures
The man who raped and murdered a Hong Kong pastry chef in Melbourne was sentenced to 33 years of jail in an Australian court on Friday, as a judge called his actions “positively evil” and “every woman’s, as well as every parent’s worst nightmare”.
Justice Betty King gave homeless Scott Allen Miller, 42, a 33-year sentence with a minimum term of 28 years at the Supreme Court of Victoria for the murder of Renea Lau Yuk-ling, 32.
“Renea Lau had never met you, had never seen you...you merely passed her in the street, and as a result of that she is now dead at your hands in the most brutal and sadistic manner,” said King in her judgment, according to a court transcript.
The court heard that Lau was walking along St Kilda Road, near a park area, at 5.30am when Miller did something to scare her. She then tried to run away from Miller, but he chased her and overpowered her.
He then repeatedly punched Lau’s head into the concrete ground until she was unconscious. He then dragged her onto a grassy area where he stripped and raped her.
Miller then hitch-hiked to Eden in New South Wales, where he was arrested after a three-day manhunt.
Joggers later found her naked body behind the park’s police memorial.
King said Miller’s behaviour is “the reason that women feel frightened to be out in public...in this city in which they have every right to be out and about in”.
Pastry chef Renea Lau was raped and murdered on her way to work in Melbourne. Photo: SCMP Pictures
King said the area was seen as a safe one.
“What you did is probably every woman’s, as well as every parent’s worst nightmare of what could happen,” said King. “This crime and what you did to Renea Lau was positively evil.”
The court heard that Miller had been out drinking for many hours before he attacked Lau, and that he also had a “persistent, untreated mental illness” of paranoid schizophrenia, and that he had been using drugs since the age of 14.
The judge said she took into account that Miller had pleaded guilty and she believed that he was sorry for what he had done.
According to the Australian Broadcasting Company, Lau’s family was present at the sentencing
Lau was a patisserie student at Melbourne’s William Angliss Institute for Hospitality between 2010 and 2012.
