HKSAR v. KHAW KIM SUN

HCCC 374/2017

[2018] HKCFI 2276

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 374 OF 2017

-----------------

------------------

-----------------------------------------------

Transcript of the Audio Recording
of the Sentence in the above Case

-----------------------------------------------

COURT:

The defendant faces two counts of murder. The murder of his wife, Wong Siew-fing, that is the 1st count and his daughter, Khaw Li-ling, 2nd count. He was found guilty of both counts by the jury after the trial.

The evidence shows that the defendant who was an associate professor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and an anaesthetist took a quantity of pure carbon monoxide, a lethal gas, which is odourless and tasteless inside two yoga balls away from the laboratory after an experiment with a rabbit was conducted on 20 May 2015.

On 22 May 2015, the defendant’s wife and daughter were found unconscious inside the yellow Mini Cooper which was stopped at the bus stop outside Sai O village.

The cause of death for both mother and daughter was carbon monoxide poisoning with a carboxyhaemoglobin level in their blood being 50 per cent and 41 per cent respectively.

Evidence shows that the carbon monoxide which killed both mother and daughter did not come from the Mini Cooper itself. There was nothing mechanically wrong with the car. A partially deflated yoga ball was found inside the boot of the Mini Cooper. The defendant admitted it was one of the yoga balls that he used to carry or convey the carbon monoxide home on 21 May 2015, the other one had leaked. And there is no direct evidence before the jury that it was the defendant who had placed the yoga ball with carbon monoxide inside the Mini Cooper which eventually killed both mother and daughter, the verdict of the jury that the defendant is guilty of both counts of murder could only mean that after considering all the circumstantial evidence and drawing inferences, they came to the only conclusion that it was the defendant who had placed the yoga ball with carbon monoxide inside the Mini Cooper with the intention to kill his wife, ended up killing his wife and his daughter Li-ling as well, as Li-ling had the day off school and happened to travel in the car with her mother.

Whether the research was a sham, a cover for the defendant to get hold of carbon monoxide to kill his wife, or that the defendant only formed the idea of using carbon monoxide to kill his wife after carbon monoxide was available to him, the fact of the matter was that he had taken carbon monoxide home and had placed the yoga ball inside the Mini Cooper and had removed its stopper so that lethal carbon monoxide leaked from the yoga ball into the cabin without those inside the cabin of the car knowing, with the intention to kill his wife and killed not only her, but also his daughter.

His excuse that he was taking the carbon monoxide home to kill rats was evidently not believed by the jury. It is shocking that a highly educated, clever and successful man such as the defendant would conjure such a calculated method to get rid of his wife. Though there is no direct evidence as to the motives for getting rid of his wife, the fact that there was a third party involved, and the fact that the defendant and his wife own certain properties, half of which might, in the case of divorce, had gone to the wife, might have some bearing on his motive.

This is a premeditated and planned murder of his wife. Evidently the defendant did not intend to kill his daughter Li-ling. The evidence indicated that the defendant and Li-ling were very close. Nevertheless, the defendant did kill Li-ling when Li-ling happened to be riding in the car with her mother. The defendant is just as responsible for killing his beloved daughter as for killing his wife.

In law, there is only one sentence I can pass for an adult person convicted of murder. That is life imprisonment.

So for the 1st count, for the murder of Wong Siew-fing, the defendant is sentenced to life imprisonment. The 2nd count, for the murder of Khaw Li-ling, the defendant is sentenced to life imprisonment.