Yang Zhao: Man accused of Brisbane toolbox murder set to testify

An international student accused of murdering a woman and hiding her body in a toolbox for almost a year is set to give evidence.

Yang Zhao, 30, is expected on Wednesday to take the stand in his own defence after pleading not guilty to the murder of Qiong Yan, 29, in September 2020 at their inner-Brisbane apartment.

He has instead pleaded guilty to interfering with Ms Yan’s corpse, which was found concealed in a large toolbox on their Hamilton unit’s balcony about 10 months after her alleged murder.

The jury has previously only heard from Zhao via a recorded phone call with a detective and videos of his two police interviews in July 2021.

Crown prosecutor Chris Cook previously told the Supreme Court jury he would allege Zhao sent more than 2000 text messages after Ms Yan’s death and impersonated her to steal significant amounts of her mother’s money.

The prosecution has accused Zhao of killing Ms Yan by either hitting her on the head with a metal gas canister or strangling her, then placing her in a “body box”, based on his own statements to police.

Defence barrister Andrew Hoare at the start of the trial asked the jury to consider whether Zhao had an accurate recollection of events when he spoke to detectives.

The jury heard evidence from forensic pathologist Beng Ong, who performed an autopsy on Ms Yan.

“A cause of death cannot be ascertained due to the decomposed state of remains,” he said.

A CT scan of the body showed a cartilage fracture around her throat that could have been caused by strangulation or decomposition, the jury heard.

During cross-examination by Mr Hoare, Dr Ong said Ms Yan had a “defect” on her forehead that could have been caused by blunt force trauma or by decomposition.

Dr Ong said he would expect to find broken bones around Ms Yan’s voice box if she had been strangled, but those injuries were not present.