Hatred of cops emerges in knifeman's inquest

Notes criticizing police were found in the notebook of Leung Kin-fai, who allegedly attacked a constable in Causeway Bay last July 1, the coroner's court heard yesterday.

A six-day inquest started yesterday on the 50-year-old Leung, who stabbed himself in the chest soon after knifing the policeman.

A page of Leung's notebook was displayed where he wrote "You [the police] think you are qualified to maintain public order and chant the slogan of 'serving Hong Kong with honor, duty, and loyalty.' You are loyal bastards." It was a comment on the "721" event, when gangs in white attacked people in the Yuen Long MTR station on July 21, 2019.

His elder brother, identified in court only as X, said Leung was not close to his family and that he did not know Leung had worked at Apple Daily. X's testimony was read by the coroner's officer, Timmy Yip Chi-hong.

X had lived apart from their parents before Leung moved back in 2008, and the brothers rarely communicated.

Leung had never indicated to him his political stance or expressed any hatred against government agencies.

He was not in trouble with creditors.

When asked by coroner David Ko Wai-hung whether X and their parents kept in touch with Leung, X said he had once asked Leung about his job, but Leung refused to answer.

"He treasured privacy and we never entered his room," X said.

In a separate incident, a 25-year-old girlfriend of another cop stabber in 2020 was convicted in the district court of perverting the course of justice.

The court heard engineer Cheung Tsz-ching, whose boyfriend Law Kok-sum attacked an officer on July 1, 2020, helped Law search for flight information and bought a ticket for him to fly from London to Taipei, after Law got a ticket from Hong Kong to London.

Cheung was also obliged to accompany Law to the airport to evade the police search and bought a ticket to Taipei for herself.

Judge Frankie Yiu Fun-che said Cheung surely knew Law had committed an offense and intended to abscond, but went on to assist him in evading arrest anyway.

"Her acts obviously were a perversion of the course of justice, and she had the intent to do so," he said.

Sentencing is expected later.