‘I was under influence of my flatmates’, says man accused of Hong Kong body-in-cement killing
In taped interview played at court, Cheung Sin-hang says co-accused manipulated him into cutting ties with his mother, borrowing hundreds of thousands of dollars and eventually murder
A Hong Kong man accused of killing a man and entombing the body in cement repented in a tearful police interview, saying he was under the influence of his two co-defendants, a court heard on Thursday.
Their manipulation led not only to him cutting ties with his mother, but eventually to the alleged murder, he said, in a recording played in court.
During the interview, Cheung Sin-hang, 26, said he had aspired to be a police officer before he fell in with his housemates, Tsang Cheung-yan and Keith Lau. All three were on trial for the murder of Cheung Man-li, 28, also known as Ah J.
I am willing [to cooperate] to offer the deceased’s family an account
“I am willing [to cooperate] to offer the deceased’s family an account,” Cheung Sin-hang said during his tearful repentance. The taped interview was played at the High Court on Thursday before the jury of seven. Interviews with Tsang, 28, and Lau, 23, had been played earlier.
The trio denied one joint count of murder, but admitted one count of preventing the lawful burial of a body.
Prosecutors said someone attacked Ah J on March 4, 2016 at the men’s flat in the DAN6 industrial building, Tsuen Wan, before Tsang injected him with alcohol. The men then built a “coffin” of cement, inside which they fused Ah J’s body, their case went.
In the interview played on Thursday, Cheung, who moved in with Tsang and Lau in November 2015, was helping officers identify images of the flat.
