A sentencing hearing began Tuesday morning for a former Winnipeg taekwondo instructor who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing three female students while they were minors.

King Yeung, 58, sat in the prisoner's dock while one of his former students looked in his direction and read out a powerful victim impact statement.

"I will never forget what you have done," she said. "I cannot forgive you, but I want to."

"I am forever done with this consuming my life."

The victims cannot be named or identified due to a publication ban. They were under the age of 18 when the incidents occurred.

"He had me give up everything, including who I was," the first victim told court. "He had complete control over me. He owned me."

Crown attorney Katie Dojack told court Yeung was in a position of power, he's more than 30 years older than each of his teen victims and that the crimes were premeditated, manipulative and calculated.

"The crimes were carefully choreographed over a number of years," Dojack told court.

The Crown is seeking a 12-year sentence for Yeung.

Defense lawyer Matt Gould told court the impact the crimes have had on the victims has been devastating, but he said a 12-year sentence is too harsh.

“It’s important to distinguish between very bad and worse than that,” Gould told court.

Dojack told court how the first former student decided to phone police in April 2016 and report years of sexual abuse.

Court heard how her decision to speak out prompted investigations into Yeung's involvement with two other victims.

Dojack also told court the first victim joined Kang's Taekwondo Academy when she was 14 after moving from Dauphin, where she lived with her grandparents. Yeung was an instructor at the academy in 2009.

"He became a father figure to her," Dojack told court.

He bought her an iPod, iPhone and told her he could help make her successful, court heard.

Dojack explained how Yeung took students on road trips for taekwondo competitions.

The Crown told court the first incident with the first victim happened in Yeung's office at the academy.

"She vividly describes how his lips brushed past hers. Then she froze," Dojack told court.

Dojack said the second incident happened during a trip to Dauphin while Yeung and a number of male and female students, including the first victim, were staying in the living room of a house which belonged to a taekwondo instructor in that community.

Court heard Yeung grabbed the girl's hand and guided her to touch his genitals.

Dojack said the abuse progressed to sexual intercourse when the two went on a road trip to Banff before the first victim was 16.

"He ordered pornography on the TV...in the hotel for her to watch."

Police arrested Yeung last year after the first victim came forward. Around that time, the first victim told detectives there may be a second victim.

Police contacted the second victim, who now lives out of province. She told officers to thank the first victim for coming forward because she didn't have the courage to do so.

"It was when (the second victim) was 13 years old that the sexual abuse started," Dojack told court. "The academy was her life."

Again, Dojack outlined how the abuse happened in the classroom and during taekwondo trips.

"There were so many trips, so much abuse."

"He started to tie her up," Dojack told court. "He would bind her hands together with some kind of string or rope."

The second victim was not in court, but provided the Crown with a victim impact statement, which was read in court by Dojack.

"He has taught me there is evil in the world, and I have taught myself I am stronger than that evil," the statement said.

A third victim also came forward. The Crown said she became the victim of abuse prior to 2008.

"She remembers the accused putting his arms over her chest," Dojack told court.

In a separate incident, Dojack explained Yeung was pretending to sleep in a vehicle during a road trip and started to run his hands upward to her thigh.

Dojack told court Yeung also bought the third victim gifts.

She also provided a victim impact statement to court, asking the Crown and the judge for a harsh sentence to help other victims of sex crimes.

"I ask the Crown and the judge to instill fear," her statement said.

Yeung stood sobbing in the prisoner’s dock as he apologized to his victims.

“To my victims, I’m very terribly sorry for my actions towards you,” Yeung told court. “I made horrible decisions without thinking of the consequences.”

“I know I was wrong, and I take full responsibility for my actions.”

Judge Dale Harvey has reserved his decision in the case.