Ex-professor gets life sentence for yoga ball murder in retrial

Malaysian anesthesiologist Khaw Kim Sun had his life sentence upheld after a panel of seven jurors on Tuesday unanimously found him guilty of murdering his wife and daughter using a carbon monoxide-filled yoga ball in 2015.

The 60-year-old, a former associate professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, looked calm in the dock as he listened to the jury’s decision — which was made after a four-hour deliberation.

He was convicted of two counts of murder back in 2018 during the first trial, in which he was accused of placing a yoga ball filled with carbon monoxide in the trunk of the family’s car on May 22, 2015. His wife Wong Siew-fing, 47, and their second daughter Lily Khaw Li-ling, 16, subsequently died of carbon monoxide poisoning inside the car.

Khaw appealed to the upper courts and the Court of Final Appeals ruled in 2023 that the trial judge had misdirected the jury. The case was sent back to the High Court for a retrial.

Before High Court Judge Brian Keith sent off the jury to deliberate at 11.33am on Tuesday, he directed them to consider whether Khaw had plotted the murder and the possibility of whether the wife or daughter was the one who put the yoga ball in the car.

In Khaw's closing statement at the retrial, he said Wong had been consulting lawyers in 2012 upon her friends’ suggestion but the pair had never considered divorce. He added that the pair had a deep talk in terms of their relationship as well as raising their two children.

Khaw also claimed he had no motive to murder his wife when the family had already planned a London trip and further said it would be stupid to murder using carbon monoxide as it would be impossible to remove all traces of the gas.

He also cited records of his purchases of carbon monoxide from the university, saying he would have created an alibi if he did intend to plot the murder.

(Eunice Lam)