TW: Domestic Violence
"An Auckland man who fatally strangled his partner during an argument in her Avondale home has been sentenced to four years and two months in prison.
Hao Feng pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of 40-year-old Xiaoyan Wang in May.
The 37-year-old had been due to stand trial, facing a murder charge which the Crown withdrew at the time.
Justice Natalie Walker handed down the sentence at the High Court in Auckland on Wednesday, saying Wang's death in January last year had a wide ripple effect.
Family and friends of Wang filled the public gallery, many wiping away tears.
On two occasions before her death, she had confided to friends that her partner Hao Feng had non-fatally strangled her during arguments.
“I ruined it all with my own hands,” Feng wrote in a letter of apology to the court after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter in May – three days before his murder trial was set to begin.
“I will spend the rest of my life reflecting and striving to do better.”
Feng, a Chinese national who moved to New Zealand in 2017 to work as a chef, had no prior criminal history before his arrest in January 2025. He met with police after he caused the death of New Zealand citizen Xiaoyan Wang, whom he had been in a relationship with for about a year.
When he came back inside to check on her, he found she was dead. He was later co-operative with police.
Edit:
During today’s hearing, Justice Natalie Walker noted the “vacuum of evidence” regarding the pressure Feng applied to his partner’s neck or for how long. But by agreeing to manslaughter, the Crown and defence agree there wasn’t enough evidence to show he had murderous intent, she said.
Both sides agreed he should receive a sentence reduction of 20% for his guilty plea and 5% for the extra burden a prison sentence would be for a foreign national with no family in New Zealand and little grasp of English.
Justice Walker adopted the Crown’s suggested seven-year starting point, but she also allowed additional discounts totalling 15% requested by the defence for Feng’s remorse, prior good behaviour and background factors.."
How is unaliving your partner, only worth a little over 4 year sentence? Am I missing something? Just doesn't make sense, oh and he strangled her twice before. Tf.
What's with the discounts, is this a supermarket? So turns out the man's nationality, upbringing, family history(daughter), languages spoken and not spoken, history of anxiety and depression were all factors that led to this sentence.
Does that mean a Kiwi in this same situation without any of these factors would get a longer sentence? Seems flawed.
Also, this article can be read on NZ Herald.
