Murderer admits sexual attack on elderly woman
A man who beat and stomped an elderly woman to death in her Auckland home has admitted her murder at the last minute before going to trial.
Jaden Lee Stroobant, 20, had denied one charge of murder and two charges of sexual violation of 69-year-old Cun Xiu Tian.
Stroobant lived behind Tian in Te Atatu Peninsula; their properties were separated by a two-metre fence. He was due to stand trial at the High Court at Auckland yesterday.
Instead, he entered guilty pleas at a formal arraignment and convictions were entered.
Justice Graham Lang gave Stroobant a first strike warning under the Three Strikes Act, and he will be sentenced in March.
According to a summary of facts, Stroobant entered Tian’s property after her daughter and son-in-law left for work. Tian was gardening when confronted by Stroobant, who grabbed and dragged her.
He struck her around the head with enough force to knock her to the ground, the summary said.
He continued hitting Tian around the head before stomping on her face. A pathologist later determined the head injuries caused Tian’s death.
She had suffered blood clots and swelling to her brain, broken ribs, and a broken bone in her throat.
The summary said Stroobant also carried out a vicious sexual assault on Tian after she sustained her fatal injuries but while she was still alive.
The details of that assault have been suppressed.
After the murder Stroobant attempted to clean the address with cleaning products he found at Tian’s home.
Afterward he went through her drawers and took her ipad, Chinese cash worth $370, and a gold watch belonging to her daughter.
‘‘The defendant has then made efforts to evade detection by police, staying at a friend’s address overnight, dismantling his phone by removing the SIM card and battery,’’ the summary said.
‘‘When finally located by police at an address the defendant attempted to escape through the rear window.’’
Prosecutor Jo Murdoch said the Crown would be seeking a sentence of preventive detention – an indeterminate sentence length imposed on serious offenders to protect the public.
Jaden Stroobant’s girlfriend, Lisa Borrett, 44, admitted a charge of assisting him to avoid arrest and was sentenced to 200 hours of community work, at the Auckland District Court in August last year.
According to Judge Nevin Dawson’s sentencing notes, on January 16, 2016, police went Borrett’s West Auckland home and asked if Stroobant was there.
She said he wasn’t but police later caught Stroobant trying to jump out of a window.
Judge Dawson said Borrett’s behaviour needed to be ‘‘denounced’’ but she had no idea Stroobant had murdered Tian.
Te Atatu MP Phil Twyford said Stroobant’s guilty plea would provide ‘‘some small consolation to the family and the community that justice will be done but really, only time can erase the pain and the grief from what was a horrendous killing in our community’’.
– Fairfax NZ