CRIMINAL CASE NO. 405 OF 2009
COURT: The accused, Li Hiu-wai, was charged with one count of murder, contrary to common law and punishable under section 2 of the Offences against the Person Ordinance, Cap. 212.
He is found guilty of murder after trial.
The facts disclose that the accused, who was a married man with a young son, began cohabiting with Chan Ka-yan in January 2007 and they lived together for some 18 months.
After they no longer lived together, Chan Ka-yan later came to know another man by the name of Plato Chan and they started dating. The accused met with Chan Ka-yan after she had started dating with Plato Chan to discuss about their relationship.
On 21 January, after Chan Ka-yan left her boyfriend’s home, she was not seen again by her boyfriend or her mother. Chan Ka-yan’s mother made a missing person’s report to the police. The case was originally handled by the Missing Persons Unit. The police made inquiries and a statement was taken from the accused, as he was a former boyfriend of Chan Ka-yan.
The case was later handed over to the District Crime Squad of Shatin. The accused was taken back to the Ma On Shan Police Station for inquiries, after the police searched his work lockers and his home. At the police station, the accused admitted he had killed Chan Ka-yan. He later took the police to recover the body of Chan Ka-yan.
Chan Ka-yan was found lying at the bottom of a water catchment at Ngau Tam Mei, Yuen Long. She was stark naked and all her fingers were cut off, leaving just her palms. Her face was slashed and the top part of her left ear had been sliced off. She also had various injuries on her body.
The autopsy report indicated the presence of manual strangulation and ligature strangulation on Chan Ka-yan’s neck. Furthermore, a paper gag was found lodged deep inside her throat. According to Dr Chiao Wing-fu, the forensic pathologist, manual strangulation, ligature strangulation and gagging, either acting alone or in combination, could have caused the death of Chan Ka-yan. Dr Chiao gave the cause of death as asphyxia.
The accused is now 39 years of age. He married a Thai national in 2003, and a son was born to them in 2006. The son is now 4 years old.
The accused was born in the mainland and he studied up to the equivalent of Form 2 before coming to live with his aunt in Hong Kong. After arrival, he studied Primary 5 and eventually finished secondary school in Hong Kong. He had worked in various jobs, including being a driver, an assistant technician and worked in a snake shop. His last job before arrest was with the Aviation Security Company Limited as a driver.
The accused does not have any previous criminal conviction in Hong Kong.
According to the Laws of Hong Kong, as the accused is over the age of 18 there is only one sentence I could impose on him for the offence of murder. That is life imprisonment.
For reason or reasons only known to the accused, he snuffed out the life of this young 22-year old woman. Not only did the accused kill her, he also damaged her corpse to cover up his crime.
With his crime the accused took away a daughter from Chan Ka-yan’s parents. One can imagine the kind of pain and anguish they suffer as a result of losing their daughter in this horrible fashion. I must say they were admirable in the way they gave evidence in court. It was clear that they were in great emotional pain but they fulfilled their duty as witnesses with dignity.
Not only did the accused destroy Chan Ka-yan’s family with his crime, he also destroyed his own family. His wife is left to fend for herself and a young son. His son would grow up without really getting to know his father. As the accused himself said, he must shoulder the criminal liability for what he has done.
For the offence of murder, the accused is sentenced to life imprisonment.