An Open Message to Dongqiao Li

Dongqiao Li,

I hope you have had a chance while being incarcerated in the Victorian prison system to reflect on your past crimes and on your future as well as the effect your crimes have had on your victims. I understand that journalists have recently attempted to make contact with you. You have either blocked them or refused interviews with them. It would have given you a valuable opportunity to explain why you have done what you have done, to show remorse and perhaps apologise to your many victims over the years. Journalists have given you a right of reply as well as a chance to share your story, but you have refused and turned down those opportunities.

I wish to have nothing ever to do with you ever again, but I will be gracious and hope that one day soon you will explain why you did what you did and will take accountability for your actions including in the two states where you are still wanted on outstanding arrest warrants.

It was distressing to read in news reports that you witnessed your stepfather being killed and your mother being injured in a car accident when you were young. Nobody should wish that on anyone and my heart breaks for you. However, none of that excuses your subsequent behaviour. Many of us have experienced some form of trauma but we do not use that trauma to hurt others…let alone use it as a mitigating factor.

You attempted but failed to suppress your name and details of the case being reported in the media when it was clearly in the public interest to share such information. You have been given numerous opportunities on previous occasions to reform. It has been reported that you accused one of your victims of being a stalker simply because he appeared in court as he had every right to do so. It also appears you tried to use this as a reason for absconding from NSW before you were sentenced in that state. Unsurprisingly, neither the police nor magistrate took your ridiculous claims seriously. Both were dismissed immediately. You have a history of absconding. There is a certain irony in accusing someone else of intrusive behaviour when you are the one that has sex with people and then accesses their wallets for their personal details without consent.

The magistrate in Melbourne described your crimes as carefully planned and cold and calculated. You appear to have shown no remorse, but your victims have had the last laugh. You thought you were above the law and would receive simply another Community Corrections Order as you have received numerous times previously. However, you were forced to eat humble pie when you were given your first custodial sentence. I understand you were terrified of going to prison but also worried about your mother finding out about your crimes.

Part of the sadness is that you have been the author of your own misfortune, and it is not over yet as far as the law is concerned. If you now reoffend the legal consequences will likely be more serious for you plus your name and photos are across the media.

I remind you that there are outstanding arrest warrants in both NSW and South Australia on which are you wanted. It has also been made clear in court to you and in the media that you are wanted on warrants in those states, so you have no excuse to plead ignorance. I encourage and urge you to hand yourself over to the relevant authorities in those states once you are legally able to do so at the earliest opportunity in order to take accountability and accept responsibility for your alleged crimes. I hope that this will help you and your victims to move forward to begin or to continue the healing process for yourself and for us.

Dongqiao Li in March 2025. Photo supplied.