Uni student 'stripped, gagged, bound' before being dumped in blowhole
Chinese university student Michelle Leng was stripped naked, gagged and bound with duct tape before her uncle allegedly stabbed her and dumped her body in a blowhole.
The grisly details surrounding Ms Leng's death were revealed by homicide detectives in court on Wednesday, Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Police allege they found photographs of the 25-year-old woman bound with duct tape around her wrists and across her mouth on a mobile phone linked to her uncle, Derek Barrett.
Detectives reportedly used the images as evidence to lay further charges against her 27-year-old uncle in Burwood court.
Ms Leng had lived with her 48-year-old aunt and her aunt's husband, Barrett, at their Campsie home since she arrived in Australia.
Police believe Ms Leng was killed at the home after returning from a shopping trip in Sydney's CBD.
A tourist discovered her naked body in a blowhole at Snapper Point on the New South Wales Central Coast on the morning of April 24, three days after she went missing.
It's understood CCTV footage captured a car entering the Lake Munmorah National Park around 7am on the Sunday Ms Leng's naked body was found in the water.
The uni student had defensive wounds which suggest she tried to fight off her attacker, however an autopsy later revealed she was stabbed at least 30 times.
Homicide detectives later arrested Barrett and charged him with murder.
The newspaper reports that in court, Barrett was charged with an additional 27 offences, some include detaining for advantage, committing an act of indecency and filming private parts without consent.
It is alleged some of those charges were in relation to photographs Barrett took of an unknown child while she was sleeping.
Barrett is also accused of filming himself masturbating over the same child and over Ms Leng a number of times
Ms Leng - who was also known by her Chinese name Mengmei - left her home in Chengdu five years ago to study economics at the University of Technology Sydney.
The victim's mother, Mei Zhang Len, arrived in Australia in May and told a translator her daughter had always dreamt of living in Sydney.
