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The trial of three men accused of the murder and unlawful burial of 28-year-old socialite Abby Choi Tin-fung opened before an eight-man, one-woman jury on Wednesday afternoon.
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Choi's former husband Alex Kwong Kong-chi, her former father-in-law Kwong Kau, and her former brother-in-law Anthony Kwong Kong-kit are facing charges of murder and preventing the lawful and decent burial of a body.
In its opening address, the prosecution described the case as sensational, revealing that relations between Choi and her former in-laws deteriorated rapidly after she decided to sell a luxury apartment in Kadooria on Kadoorie Hill, Ho Man Tin, which was registered under Kwong Kau’s name as a nominee owner.
Despite Choi’s requests for Kwong Kau to vacate the property and sign a power of attorney for the sale, he repeatedly refused.
Prosecution points to financial disputes and victim's wealthy background
According to the prosecution’s opening statement, Choi was a prominent model, social media influencer, and celebrity with approximately 140,000 online followers. A mother of four, she was in a loving relationship with Chris Tam Fong-chun, the son of the founder of the TamJai Yunnan Mixian restaurant chain.
The prosecution asserted that the root cause of the tragedy lay in a financial dispute. Choi came from a wealthy family; born in Hainan, she later moved to Hong Kong and communicated with her mother in the Hainanese dialect.
Following her mother’s remarriage, Choi maintained a close relationship with her stepfather, who ran a successful construction business in mainland China and funded her daily living expenses.
Choi later studied finance at the University of Hong Kong and demonstrated a sharp eye for investments, having received HK$10 million from her stepfather to fund her investment activities.
Living expenses funded by stepfather during marriage to Alex Kwong
During her student years, Choi entered into a relationship with Alex Kwong. In 2013, at the age of 18, she became pregnant, suspended her studies, and married him. She gave birth to their daughter the following year.
Throughout their marriage, Kwong did not have a stable job, and the couple’s living expenses were heavily supported by Choi’s stepfather. The Kwong family was not particularly affluent; Kwong Kau was a retired police sergeant who had lived in quarters provided by the force.
The court heard that between 2013 and 2015, Alex Kwong was involved in multiple online gold-trading scams. He allegedly befriended victims through social media applications, persuaded them to purchase gold ornaments, and then fled with the funds, which totaled approximately HK$6.2 million.
Although he was eventually arrested for those offenses, he skipped bail and went on the run, remaining at large until his arrest in 2023 following Choi's death.
Continued financial support for former in-laws after second marriage
Chris Tam had known both Choi and Alex Kwong during their student days. In 2015, after Choi had ended her relationship with Kwong, she and Tam began dating and eventually cohabited, though they did not officially register their marriage.
Choi gave birth to Tam’s daughter in 2016, and the couple held a wedding banquet. In 2019, she gave birth to a son, and she owned a residential property in Manhattan Hill. Despite her divorce from Kwong, Choi continued to provide substantial financial assistance to the Kwong family.
Between 2020 and 2022, Choi handed HK$25 million to Alex Kwong to purchase watches, with Kwong paying HK$17 million to a watch company while Anthony Kwong acted as an assistant.
Following Choi’s death, only HK$1.4 million remained in that account. Although Choi had been gifted the Manhattan Hill property in Lai Chi Kok by the Tam family, she decided to purchase the Kadooria unit in Ho Man Tin for over HK$60 million so her two children with Kwong could live nearby.
She also wished to avoid any potential discomfort within the Tam family regarding living arrangements. To save on stamp duty, she arranged for Kwong Kau to hold the property under his name as a nominee.
Choi also spent a vast sum of money luxuriously renovating the Kadooria apartment, hired a driver and two domestic helpers for them, and provided the Kwong family with a monthly living allowance.
Defendants face murder and unlawful burial charges
Anthony Kwong, Kwong Kau, and Alex Kwong have been jointly charged with one count of murder and one count of preventing the lawful burial of a body. The charges allege that the three men murdered Abby Choi on February 21, 2023, inside the ground floor of a village house at 56B Lung Mei Village on Ting Kok Road in Tai Po, and subsequently prevented the lawful burial of her body between February 21 and 23 of the same year.
The trial is conducted in English before Deputy High Court Judge Brian Keith. The prosecution is represented by external Senior Counsel Charlotte Draycott, Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Gary Leung Yuk-hang, Senior Government Counsel Human Lam Hiu-man and Gabriel Ng Hay-lok, and Government Counsel Herman Wan Pui-hin. Trevor Beel appears for Anthony Kwong, Oliver Davies represents Kwong Kau, and Andrew Raffell represents Alex Kwong.
