Frail old woman's killer on violent roll

Olinale Ah You in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Olinale Ah You was no stranger to using violence to get what he wanted, committing a series of shocking assaults right up to when he brutally killed 80-year-old Yan Ping Yang.

He even continued to offend while he was being hunted by police, assaulting a woman and threatening to harm a 4-year-old child during an aggravated robbery two weeks after the murder.

Ah You, 30, was yesterday found guilty of murdering Mrs Yang. She died in hospital on June 14, 2008, three days after he battered her frail body with punches and kicks and stomped on her chest that knocked her unconscious.

A jury in the High Court at Auckland took just over two hours to find him guilty after a week-long trial. When the verdict was read he began to cry.

The Herald can now reveal Ah You had already committed four serious assaults by the time he became a murderer, one of them occurring only a fortnight before.

He admitted the assaults, three counts of robbery and two counts of aggravated robbery, and was jailed for 12 years last May.

During the first assault, in December 2005, he pinned a tiler against a wall and threatened him, taking his wallet and cellphone.

In August 2007, in Papatoetoe, he attacked a woman, pulling her by the hair and pushing her as he demanded money. He repeatedly told her he would harm her 3-month-old baby if she didn't give him money.

The following month he struck again.

He punched and kicked another tiler in Clendon until he suffered lacerations, severe bruising and a skull and knee fracture.

Two weeks before Mrs Yang was killed, Ah You threatened a 17-year-old man with a spanner while demanding money and jewellery. He escaped with jewellery worth $25,000.

Then, while he was being hunted by detectives for Mrs Yang's murder, he pushed his way into a 34-year-old woman's home and threatened her with a pocket knife.

She tried to run but he dragged her into the lounge and put her in a headlock. He then dragged her into her bedroom by her ponytail, threatening to harm the 4-year-old child she was caring for.

In a Court of Appeal decision, Justice James Robertson said he had accumulated an appalling list of convictions and that "protection from the public from this sort of invasion and intrusion is of prime importance".

Before the verdict was delivered prosecutor Kieran Raftery told jurors Ah You's modus operandi was to use whatever degree of violence to get what he wanted.

He said his previous victims all knew what he wanted so were able to co-operate, but Mrs Yang spoke little English.

"She suffered far more violence than the others did ... [what she suffered was] much more savage, much more brutal".

Ah You argued he hadn't meant to kill Mrs Yang. His lawyer Shane Cassidy said the assault, while disgraceful, wasn't particularly vicious when compared to other attacks.

"When you look at the scale of nastiness what this man did to her wasn't particularly over the top," he said.

Prosecutors are seeking a sentence of preventive detention when Ah You is sentenced on June 4.