A man who strangled and butchered a 16-year-old girl after they had sex was jailed for life yesterday."The fact we had to sit and listen to what you did was the worst experience ever imaginable," Judge Alan Wright told Ting Kai-tai.
"It would be no exaggeration to say your conduct was barbaric. You killed a 16-year-old, and you disposed of her body in a most horrendous way."
Earlier, Ting, 24, blinked several times and took a deep breath when the jury of seven delivered a unanimous guilty verdict of murder after deliberating for four hours.
The High Court was told how the remains of Wong Ka-mui were flushed down a toilet, mixed with those of pigs at a market and her head tossed into the sea. Ting pleaded guilty only to a count of preventing the girl's lawful burial.
Wong - a Form Three dropout, also known as KiKi - agreed to have sex with transport worker Ting as part of "compensated dating" in his Sham Shui Po flat on April 27 last year for HK$1,500.
In a trial that began last Monday, the jury heard Ting tell police in a recorded interview how he killed Wong by gripping her neck for one or two minutes. He then spent hours cutting up the body into small pieces to be flushed down the toilet.
Ting said he disposed of Wong's bones in a basket of pig remains at a butcher's shop in Shek Kip Mei Market and took a bus to Kowloon City Pier, where he dumped her head in the sea.
But Ting told the court that he was befuddled by drugs and had no recollection of causi
ng Wong's death. The admission to police, he testified, came after repeated assaults and threats by officers.Senior Inspector Au Wai-shuen, the officer in charge of the case, said police were grateful that someone made a report that led to Ting's arrest the same day, May 6 last year.
Au was referring to Ting's friend, Tse Yin-tak, 30, who told the court how Ting had called him and described in detail how he killed a girl by strangling her and then dismembered the body.
Ting even told him that he tore off the girl's face because he did not want to look at it.
Police extracted human tissue from a sewer pipe connected to the building where Ting lived. DNA tests showed it was highly likely the remains were of Wong.
Ting claimed he and Wong had snorted ketamine before they went to bed - something he had not mentioned in any of seven video-recorded interviews after his arrest.
Ting had five previous convictions, including assault and selling false trademarks and had been in a detention center.
Family members of Ting and Wong were not in court to hear the verdict.
Ting's father died last year while his son was in custody. Ting was allowed to attend the funeral in September.
