Li asks SA court for suspended sentence

An Adelaide man who bashed and strangled his mother before fleeing to China has asked for a suspended sentence after being found guilty of manslaughter.

In submissions for Wei Li, 22, the Supreme Court has been told he had suffered abuse at the hands of his mother for years with a psychological report characterising the abuse as domestic violence.

Defence counsel told the court that while suspended sentences in manslaughter cases were rare, Li's was one where it should be considered.

The court also heard Li had already spent about 19 months in custody since being returned to Australia in 2014, was remorseful and had never denied that his mother died at his hands.

Li was found guilty of killing 41-year-old Emma Tien in 2011, beating his mother with a metal rod and strangling her before wrapping her bloodied body in bedsheets and leaving it in the lounge of the family's Burnside home.

After the killing Li, who was 18 at the time, fled first to Melbourne and then to Singapore and China.

He was returned to Australia after being detained by Chinese authorities and it was revealed on Thursday that he had been working there as a teacher under a false name.

Prosecutor Jim Pearce said Li had faced two options at that time, return to Australia or be detained in China as an illegal immigrant.

Mr Pearce also urged the court not to impose a suspended sentence, describing it a wholly inappropriate.

He said Li's mother may have been domineering and demanding but it was open to the court to reject the claims that she had been physically abusive to her son over an extended period.

"Her behaviour fell well short of the abusive, violent mother she has been painted as," Mr Pearce said.

In his evidence during his trial Li, who pleaded not guilty to murder, claimed to have acted in self-defence when his mother came at him, yelling and screaming after becoming angry because he was not practising piano.

"It happened so fast. At some point I realised she had something in her hand, just going at me," he told the court last week.

"I think she wanted to kill me. I had no choice but to fight back."

Earlier this week, the jury returned a not guilty verdict on the murder charge but found the law student guilty of manslaughter.