HKU don's murder trial told of fight

A former University of Hong Kong academic, Cheung Kie-chung, allegedly killed his wife after they had an argument over their daughter who left home after complaining about a dirty toilet, the high court heard yesterday.

A note saying Cheung owed his wife HK$6.7 million was also found inside their bedroom, the murder trial before Judge Anthea Pang Po-kam heard.

Cheung, 56, former associate professor at the department of mechanical engineering, pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife, Chan Wai-man, 53, at their home at the university’s Wei Lun Hall on or about August 17, 2018.

He had pleaded guilty to manslaughter, but this was not accepted by the prosecution.

Cheung was also charged with preventing the lawful burial of his wife’s body.

The prosecution said Cheung and Chan lived in the HKU dormitory together with their 30-year-old son Scott and 27-year-old daughter Nancy. Chan’s younger sister and her eight-year-old daughter also lived in the same apartment.

The prosecution said Chan planned to open a new account at DBS Bank and asked Cheung to deposit HK$4 million in the account on August 16.

But Cheung refused and asked the bank manager who reached out to him to come on another day.

Later on the same day, Chan was attracted by the welcome reward offered by Citibank and planned to open a new Citibank account. Chan then wrote a check to withdraw HK$4 million from Cheung’s bank account and deposited it in the bank account.

But the prosecution said the check bounced due to insufficient balance in Cheung’s account.

The prosecution said police found a note in the couple’s bedroom, saying that Cheung owed Chan HK$6.7 million and must pay off the debt by May 31, 2018, or he must repay her a bigger sum of HK$7.7 million.

On the night of August 16, their daughter found one of the toilets inside the room was dirty and scolded her mother for not cleaning properly. The daughter then stormed out of the house at 11.30pm.

The couple had a fight as Cheung accused Chan of driving the daughter away, while she blamed him for not intervening to help resolve the situation.

In the middle of the night, Cheung’s sister-in-law saw through the door that Chan was lying on the bed with her back to the door. She saw Cheung was next to her sister and appeared to be pressing her on the bed.

The next morning, Chan was nowhere to be seen. Cheung told his sister-in-law that Chan had already left the dormitory. Chan did not reply to phone calls or text messages.

The prosecution assumed that Cheung had already killed Chan.

It added that Cheung bought eight pieces of wooden board to build a box on August 18. He was spotted by police transporting the box containing Chan’s body to his office on August 22.

Cheung then bought another six boards on August 23 and lied to officers that the wooden box they saw a day ago had been taken apart, said the prosecution.

But police found the self-made box when they raided Cheung’s office on August 28 and found Chan’s body inside.

The hearing continues today.