A guesthouse landlord accused of the murders of tw

A guesthouse landlord accused of the murders of two young Korean women admitted killing one of his victims today.

(Weds)

Kyu Soo Kim, 32, stuffed one of the students into a suitcase and dumped it outside York, leaving the other to rot in a cupboard, a jury has heard.

Kim today pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of student In Hea Song, 22, who he is alleged to have suffocated with a sock.

But prosecutor Mr Jonathan Laidlaw told the court: ‘There are some cases were the prosecution will accept a guilty plea when a defendant is charged with murder – this is not one of them.

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Judge Jeremy Roberts QC told jurors the court would hear in due course what the basis of Kim’s admission was.

But he told them the the defendant was still charged with two counts of murder.

The judge said: ‘He was saying he killed one of them and that he did it unlawfully.

‘Whether he claims his responsibility was diminished or whether he was saying he didn’t mean to do it remains to be seen.

‘

The court has heard he tortured the two students, extracting their pin numbers before emptying their bank accounts, it is alleged.

Kim suffocated Hyo Jung Jin, 21 and Miss Song by pushing socks into their mouths and winding tape around their faces, the court was told.

The victims, who had stayed at guest houses he rented for tourists, were both found naked, the court has heard.

Mr Laidlaw has told the jury the murders could have been motivated by greed or sex.

‘There is another possibility – that the defendant achieved a sadistic form of pleasure from the form of killing, which was in this case slow and deliberate,’ Mr Laidlaw has said.

Miss Jin, a student in France, was murdered just days after arriving at Kim’s guesthouse in Eagle Street, Holborn, central London, in October 2001, it is alleged.

She was forced into a large suitcase, which was then dumped 212 miles away in a country lane in Askham Richard, near York.

Surrey University student Miss Song disappeared a month later and was found on March 15 last year in a sealed cupboard at a guesthouse in Augusta Street, Poplar, east London, the court heard.

Kim, who last lived at Eagle Street, fled to Canada, paying for the flight with his second victim’s cash.

He was arrested when he returned to Britain on January 7 last year.

He denies two charges of murder.

The trial continues.

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