'Yoga-ball killer' sees guilty verdict upheld

The court of appeal yesterday rejected an application by former anesthesia professor Khaw Kim Sun, who is currently serving life imprisonment, over the murder of his wife and second daughter in 2015.

Khaw, a 57-year-old former associate professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, was found guilty on two counts of murder in 2018 after placing an unplugged yoga ball filled with carbon monoxide in the trunk of his wife's car.

Khaw's wife Wong Siu-fing, 47, and second daughter Lily Khaw Li-ling, 16, were found dead on May 22, 2015, in a yellow Mini Cooper.

The high court's chief judge Jeremy Poon Shiu-chor, court of appeal vice president Andrew Macrae and judge Kevin Zervos yesterday rejected Khaw's appeal.

In filing the appeal, Khaw's lawyers argued that the trial's judge Judianna Barnes gave an unfair summary of evidence before deliberations. However, in a 153-page judgement, the three judges said they found the trial "thoroughly fair," adding: "There was cogent and compelling evidence to justify [Khaw's] convictions on both counts of murder."

During the trial, Khaw had argued that the deaths of his wife and daughter were "an unfortunate accident" and he had intended to use the poisonous gas as a way to exterminate the rats in his Sai Kung village house. The defense also said both Khaw's wife and daughter could have been the ones to place the yoga ball inside the car. However, the prosecution argued that Khaw, an expert in anesthesiology, had deliberately prepared the poisonous yoga ball to kill his wife.

They went on to say that the death of Khaw's daughter - who happened to be accompanying her mother that day - was most likely an accident.

The remaining three children in the ill-fated family have since been in the care of Khaw's former lover Shara Lee Wee-yee.

Lee is a Hong Kong Polytechnic University associate professor in the department of health technology and informatics.

Prior to Khaw's arrest, Lee and Khaw had been living together in Hung Hom.