Loved ones of Australian woman question backpacker Tobias Pick's manslaughter sentence

People who were close to an Australian woman who was choked to death are breaking their silence to dispute her killer's version of events and share their dismay over the less than three years he had to spend behind bars for the crime.

German backpacker Tobias Pick strangled Launceston woman Jingai Zhang, then fled with her mobile phone and $2,400 without calling for help on Boxing Day 2020.

Prosecutors accepted Pick's offer to plead guilty to manslaughter after he claimed he choked Ms Zhang, a sex worker, at her request.

The ABC has confirmed the case is now before German authorities, highlighting a little-known legal process known as "mirror proceedings".

Under that country's law, a person can be prosecuted for a crime committed overseas even if they have already been convicted, if it is expected that the German sentence would be substantially longer than the sentence applied abroad.

Ms Zhang's husband, David Simmons, is among those who cannot make sense of the way the case was handled in Australia.

He has raised concerns that his wife's job influenced the outcome.

"Yes, she was a sex worker, but the fact was she was still a person, and everyone's got the right to do what they want to do with their life," Mr Simmons said.

An ABC investigation has examined police transcripts and interviewed Mr Simmons, Ms Zhang's boyfriend and a former client who became her close friend.

Central to their concerns are their shared belief that Ms Zhang would never have consented to being choked and that Pick should have faced a murder trial.

The ABC investigation has also revealed that Pick's ex-girlfriend told Tasmania Police he had been violent towards her, including during a fight before he killed Ms Zhang.

Ms Zhang's husband, Mr Simmons, said "Mimi" was a lovable, funny and caring mother and grandmother who dedicated herself to improving the circumstances of her loved ones.

Her killer, who hid for two days from police, was sentenced to five years for manslaughter and stealing, with a non-parole period of half that, in Hobart's Risdon Prison.

Pick was deported to Germany in 2023 after serving his non-parole period.

University of Melbourne law school professor Heather Douglas has reviewed documents relating to the Tasmanian case.

 "There seems to be quite a lot of evidence that could have supported it, and I think it should have been an opportunity for a jury to make a consideration about whether they were satisfied that there was a murder in this context or whether it was manslaughter."

Under Tasmanian law, a person can be tried for murder but found guilty of manslaughter instead if the evidence does not prove the intent to kill or cause serious harm required for a murder conviction.

The Director of Public Prosecutions declined to comment for this story.

A question of consent

According to court and coronial records, Pick, then 27 and travelling in Tasmania with his then-girlfriend, sought Ms Zhang's services in Launceston twice.

The documents state that on the second occasion, Pick agreed to choke Ms Zhang at her request. He forcefully choked the 49-year-old for at least one minute, failed to call for help, and then fled the scene.

He had also taken Ms Zhang's money — rent she had collected from an investment property and the $150 he had paid her — and her pink mobile phone.

Pick was found 30 kilometres from Launceston two days later.

Handing down Pick's sentence in 2022, Justice Robert Pearce wrote: "The prosecution accepts that Ms Zhang consented to the application of some form of pressure to her neck, but consent does not excuse or justify acts which result in death or injury likely to cause death."

But Ms Zhang's husband, her partner and one former client have each questioned whether she had, in fact, consented to being choked.

All three men were adamant she had never expressed an interest in asphyxiation.

Another man, recognised by the court as her boyfriend, who asked not to be named, said: "No, no, no, she hated anything like that, and she was scared of stuff like that."

The long-term friend, a former client, said: "I'd been with her millions of times. She never, ever expressed any desire for anything like that."

'Zhang was struggling and in pain,' the report says

The Supreme Court, the Coroner's Office, the Director of Public Prosecutions and Tasmania Police declined to release the report of forensic pathologist Donald Ritchey, with the latter authority saying the request would have to be made under the Right to Information laws.

Coroner Robert Webster referenced the report in his investigation into Ms Zhang's death.

"Dr Ritchey says it is likely Ms Zhang was struggling and in pain before her death, and he believes pressure would likely have been applied for at least 60 seconds, and perhaps longer, and would have continued after death occurred," he wrote.

According to court and coroner documents, Ms Zhang was found with bruising and scratch marks on her neck. The bruising was related to the force used by Pick, and the scratch marks may have been from his hands, the court heard.

Professor Douglas said the forensic pathologist's report was "really strong evidence" that should have been presented to a jury.

In pre-sentencing submissions, Pick's lawyer, Olivia Jenkins, said her client did not realise Ms Zhang was struggling to breathe when choking her as she was facing away from him at the time, and that he thought she was unresponsive but still breathing when he fled the home without calling for help.

The ABC asked the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) a series of questions relating to the case, including why it accepted Pick's offer to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

In a statement, DPP Daryl Coates said: "The Director of Public Prosecutions does not publicly comment on the reasons for not prosecuting particular charges in respect to cases."

Pick's girlfriend details the alleged fight before he went to Zhang 

The ABC has obtained previously unreported transcripts from two police interviews with Pick's girlfriend of the time, also a German national, who told authorities the killer had been physically and emotionally abusive over their eight-month relationship.

She told Tasmania Police that they had fought in the hours before he killed Ms Zhang.

His anger started on December 25. She alleged Pick pushed her outside a Coles supermarket, and that his anger later escalated when she spoke with another man at their hostel, having previously asked her to refrain from talking "like this" to men.

According to the woman's interview with police, Pick's anger continued into the next day — Boxing Day — and they fought in the morning about going on a hike. She alleged he "pushed me against the door … and pushed me on the side".

She told police he then told her he wanted to spend some time apart and likely break up.

Pick left for the afternoon. When he spoke with his ex-girlfriend again early that evening, she alleged to police that he claimed he had been in a fight with a drug dealer after trying to buy enough cocaine to kill himself.

This appeared to be a fabrication. Pick had, in fact, visited Ms Zhang and killed her.

According to the evidence given to police by Pick's ex-partner, who the ABC has chosen not to name, he had hit her on five or six occasions over the course of their short relationship, and had threatened to kill himself when he was upset with her behaviour.

There was no reference to Pick's ex-girlfriend's allegations of violence in the court documents reviewed by the ABC.

Tasmania Police was asked whether the transcripts of its interviews with Pick's ex-girlfriend had been provided to the DPP, but was told an answer would have to be sought under Right to Information laws.

'I don't believe him'

Beyond his scepticism that Ms Zhang would ask to be choked, her boyfriend said he struggled to believe other elements of Pick's account.

The court had heard Pick had removed his condom at Ms Zhang's suggestion — something both her partner and long-term client said she would allow only with men she knew well — and they each said she would never have sex with a client in her own clothes.

Her boyfriend, who found her dead, said she had been strangled with the skirt of the dress she was still wearing.

They also separately questioned how it was that Pick came to steal Ms Zhang's money, which the court heard he took while pretending to go to the bathroom before they had sex. His lawyer described it at a pre-sentencing hearing as "impulsive".

Both men said she kept money in her personal bedroom and would not have let a stranger roam the house.

"I don't believe he randomly got with her, and in the heat of the moment, something like that happened.

"Why didn't they take it to trial?"

Her husband, Mr Simmons, said it was not explained as to why Pick's charge was downgraded from murder. He said he was devastated by Pick's five-year sentence.

Professor Douglas said manslaughter sentences were "notoriously all over the place", given the different conditions in which accidental death could occur.

"Where I'm from, for example, Victoria, we see closer to sort of 10 years as the average and certainly with some recent sex worker cases of strangulation, we've seen those kinds of sentences put in place."

In Melbourne, the DPP filed an appeal against a 14-year sentence handed to a man who pleaded guilty to manslaughter after killing and robbing two sex workers within 24 hours, arguing it was "manifestly inadequate".

That matter will be heard on March 16.

Scarlet Alliance chief executive Mish Pony said short sentences suggested to sex workers that "the taking of our lives is not as serious as the taking of non-sex worker lives".

They want prosecution offices to review the way they deal with crimes against sex workers.

"This is a wide-reaching issue that needs to be urgently addressed."

Professor Douglas said she hoped stigma around sex work — including concern about how a jury might perceive Ms Zhang — did not play a role in the way her case was managed.

"This was a woman at work in her home, and she was violently assaulted by a person," Professor Douglas said.

Pick now running cake shop with girlfriend

Positive character references from Pick's family, friends and a former employer were provided to Justice Pearce during pre-sentencing submissions.

The Supreme Court heard he was a qualified boilermaker who was inspired by a stay in a mental health clinic to become a social worker.

He gained full-time employment assisting refugees in integrating into Adenau, his home town, before travelling and taking odd jobs in Canada, the US, and eventually Australia.

"He's truly sorry to Ms Zhang, her family members and her friends," Ms Jenkins told the court.

"Mr Pick wants to devote his post-custody life to helping others — to attempt to somewhat make amends for what has occurred."

Pick is now a free man who, according to articles in his local newspaper, runs a cafe and fast-food venue with his pregnant girlfriend back in Adenau.

He has twice appeared in profile pieces in Rhein-Zeitung in which he asked to be known only as "Tobi". According to translations, there was a reference to his travels, but no mention of his conviction.

He was granted parole in July 2023, and, according to German reports, his first cafe, Kleine-Auszeit (Small Break), opened the following month.

However, the ABC can confirm authorities in Koblenz, Germany, have been conducting what is known as mirror proceedings against the now 33-year-old since January 2021.

In that country, prosecutors can choose to independently examine crimes committed by German nationals abroad to determine whether there are grounds for domestic proceedings.

The investigation may result in further proceedings against Pick, though it is not yet clear whether that will happen. The investigation is ongoing.

Under German law, a person can be tried for a crime for which they have already been convicted if the sentence expected by the prosecutor's office is substantially longer than what was handed down overseas.

Pick could not be contacted for comment.

Those who knew Ms Zhang remain devastated by her death. She was a kind and generous person, they said, who was great company and talked often of missing her family in China.

One message sent to her former client during COVID, seen by the ABC, spelled out her fear: "I don't want to die in Australia," she said.

Mr Simmons said his grandchildren, who spent Christmas Day 2020 with Ms Zhang, struggled to understand where their "Mimi" had gone.

The family's photos of their final day together were lost when Pick threw Ms Zhang's phone into the North Esk River.

"Things just went downhill, and we've suffered ever since, all because she was taken way before her time," Mr Simmons said.