HKU professor says his mind "went blank” when he strangled his wife with wires

Former HKU associate professor Cheung Kie-chung said his mind “went blank” when he strangled his wife with wires, he told judge Anthea Pang Po-kam at the High Court.

Cheung recalled the day he killed his wife Tina, which is on the night of August 16. He told the judge that Tina had a quarrel with her daughter Nancy over issues with cleaning the toilet.

Cheung later left home around 10.30pm to discuss with his students the admission arrangements of new students for the new school year. He later returned home and was told by Tina‘s sister that Nancy had left home at midnight.

“I was furious about Tina as it should be her duty to clean the toilet, but instead she demanded Nancy to clean it, causing Nancy to leave home this late,” he told the court.

Cheung later returned to his bedroom and heard his wife complaining to her daughter over voice messages that the orange juice she bought had gone bad, he then told her wife not to make trouble out of nothing.

He said his wife had retorted that he had done nothing to stop the fight between her and their daughter, saying they had then went into another quarrel.

“After I removed my glasses and laid down in bed, she went on and kicked me off the bed. I do not wish to continue arguing anymore so I reach under the bed wanting to grab my slippers and leave, but instead, I grab a cable wire,” said Cheung.

When he returned to bed with the wire in hand, his wife was still yelling at him, telling him to leave.

“At that moment, all I had in mind is that ‘she is talking too much’, and went on to strangle her with the wire,” claimed Cheung.

He said his mind went blank after he had done so. At the time when he was aware of his actions, his wife had already lost consciousness, with the wire ‘wrapped several times around her neck’.

Cheung said he had tried to untie the wire and the wire broke during the process.

“I was frightened seeing her losing consciousness, I thought I have killed her. All I want is to cover up the incident by hiding her body, let no one know as I was ashamed of it,” he added.

He said that is when he hid the body in the suitcase placed outside his son’s room and pretend nothing happened.

The case will continue next week.