Alex McEwan jailed for life for murder of Korean student
Alex McEwan has been sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of murdering Korean student Eunji Ban.
Ms Ban was walking to work as a hotel cleaner in Brisbane’s CBD around 4am on November 24, 2013 when she was killed.
The court heard the 22-year-old’s brutally beaten body was found in Wickham Park in the early hours of the morning.
During his trial in Brisbane’s Supreme Court, McEwan admitted to killing the young student, however pleaded not guilty to murder on mental health grounds.
The 25-year-old claimed he was instructed to carry out the random killing by a demon named ‘jazzy’.
However, it took the jury just one day to reach a unanimous guilty verdict.
“You treated that poor young woman with cruelty, degradation and contempt,” Justice Roslyn Atkinson said during sentencing on Thursday morning.
Ms Ban’s family broke down in tears as the verdict was handed down.
#BREAKING Alex McEwan has been found GUILTY of the murder of Eunji Ban @7NewsBrisbane pic.twitter.com/6T44UNiLfl
— Vivien von Drehnen (@vivienvon7) August 23, 2018
Court hears that Eunji Ban had been in Australia for just six weeks when she was murdered by Alex McEwan, as she walked to work in Brisbane. Victim impact statement from family talks about how she had hoped to further her studies in microbiology and learn English. #9News
— S Marshall-McCormack (@ShannonMM9) August 23, 2018
Eunji Ban’s parents have read a powerful letter they wrote to their daughter last night. Eunji’s mum said she was a lovely daughter and her best friend @7NewsBrisbane pic.twitter.com/l8Vhxf7nqH
— Vivien von Drehnen (@vivienvon7) August 23, 2018
