A Tasmanian man has pleaded guilty to murdering a Chinese university student in Hobart last year.
Stavros Papadopoulos, 22, of Hobart, changed his previous not guilty plea during a Supreme Court hearing on Monday.
Papadopoulos admits using a concrete block to bludgeon accountancy student Zhang Yu before strangling her and finally drowning her inside a unit in the Hobart suburb of New Town on June 25 last year.
Yu, 26, from Wenzhou, was studying accountancy in Hobart at the University of Tasmania.
Her family came to Hobart from China and took her ashes home after inviting the shocked people of Hobart to her heart wrenching funeral, attended by 200 people, including detectives and Hobart's mayor.
She was murdered and her body dumped in the Tyenna Rivera, 60km west of Hobart, after meeting Papadopoulos and co-accused Daniel Williams on a Thursday night out in Hobart.
She had been missing for five days until investigators were led to her body, following the arrest of Papadopoulos and Williams.
Williams, 21, of Kingston, near Hobart, maintained his plea of not guilty to the charge of murder, during his appearance in the Supreme Court in Hobart on Monday.
Justice Peter Evans remanded Papadopoulos in custody to appear in the same court on Wednesday for sentencing.
Williams will also remain in custody until his trial begins in the Supreme Court in April.
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