Witness in Hong Kong body-in-cement murder trial did not go to police ‘because she feared defendants would kill her too’
Young woman says one of the defendants told her about killing, but he said it so jokingly she did not know if he was serious
A young woman feared she and her boyfriend could be next after her three flatmates killed a man and encased his body in cement, she tearfully told a Hong Kong court on Thursday.
Ho Ling-yu, 20, said that in the days after the alleged murder a slab of cement turned up in her living room, she heard “stone grinding and scratching” sounds and, before long, the stench of blood filled the air. The men later forced her to go to Taiwan with them, she said.
Ho was testifying against Tsang Cheung-yan, 28, Keith Lau, 23, and Cheung Sin-hang, 25, who she lived with at the DAN6 industrial building in Tsuen Wan. The three have denied conspiring to murder Cheung Man-li, 28, in the flat on March 4, 2016.
She said Tsang told her about the killing, but in a jokey way, meaning she did not take it seriously. She only realised there really was a dead body in her home when she saw Tsang and the two others moving the block of cement through a room of towels drenched in blood, she told the High Court.
Tsang and the deceased used to have a business together. When the victim went to the house that day he intended to pick up a cashier’s order for HK$5 million (US$640,000), a sum he wanted in return for withdrawing from the business arrangement, prosecutors said. They alleged one of the men attacked the deceased, also known as “Ah J”, with chloroform, before they injected him with alcohol and hid the body in a slab of cement. All three have pleaded guilty to one count of preventing the lawful burial of a body.
Ho said on Thursday Tsang told her not to call police after the killing, but she dared not ask why.
“I thought that if I appeared to do anything unusual then they would kill me too,” she said, during emotional testimony.
