Uncle jailed over 'depraved and sadistic' murder of niece

A Sydney man has been jailed for a maximum of 46 years for the sadistic, sexually-motivated murder of his niece.

Derek Barrett did not look up, gazing at the floor of the dock, as the Judge detailed his degrading, savage and sexually-perverse crime which claimed Mengmei Leng’s life.

Her shattered mother watched from the gallery as the court was told of how he bound and gagged his niece in a bedroom of their Campsie unit in 2016.

Over the next two days, he photographed her, with one of the images revealing a look of terror on the 25-year-old’s face.

He then untied her and stabbed her at least 31 times, loaded her into the boot of his car before driving to Snapper Point on the Central Coast and tossing her body into a blowhole.

It is a crime he claimed to have only vague memories of because he had taken the drug ice and synthetic cannabis in the days beforehand.

But today, Justice Helen Wilson found Barrett was motivated by his “own sexual enjoyment". 

“It was a depraved and sadistic act committed by a man in a position of trust to Ms Leng," she said. 

She also dismissed his claims it was the result of drug use which all but erased his memory of the awful crime.

“He had an air in the witness box of someone playing a part… His distress seemed somewhat contrived," Justice Wilson said. 

Barrett was handed a minimum sentence of 34 years and six months. 

He will be in his 60s when he is eligible for parole in 2050.