Abby Choi’s ex-brother-in-law admits to erasing evidence by wiping down car

The former brother-in-law of slain Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi Tin-fung has admitted to erasing evidence of her killing by cleaning the car used to transport her body to a village house where she was dismembered.

Anthony Kwong Kong-kit told the High Court on Thursday that he felt “safer” after wiping down the Toyota Alphard seven-seater as he had “complicated” feelings after his brother strangled Choi during a violent quarrel. He claimed to have cleaned the vehicle even though there was no blood in it.

Giving evidence for a fourth day in the murder trial, the defendant also highlighted what he retrospectively thought was his cowardly and irrational behaviour, saying he should have called police instead of disposing of his former sister-in-law’s corpse in secret.

“Had I been more rational and had my mind been clearer, things might not have turned out so badly,” he said.

Anthony, 35, is contesting a joint count of murder alongside his father, Kwong Kau, 68, and his younger brother, Alex Kwong Kong-chi, 31, who is Choi’s ex-husband.

The brothers admitted preventing the lawful burial of the 28-year-old’s body before the trial began in late September. Kwong Kau, a retired police sergeant, also pleaded guilty to that charge midway through the trial.

Prosecutors allege that Alex killed his ex-wife Choi while Anthony was driving them to Pak Shek Kok to pick up their daughter from school on February 21, 2023.

Anthony testified on Wednesday that his brother killed the influencer in a fit of rage after she hurled insults at him during the car ride.

He also claimed that Choi had been strangled during a struggle, although medical findings suggested that the model was killed after being struck in the head seven times with a blunt object.

On Thursday, Anthony maintained that he was only following his father’s instructions to drive the car to his newly rented flat in Tai Po’s Lung Mei village and to move his former sister-in-law’s body into the premises after calling the elder Kwong for help.

Surveillance camera footage showed the Kwongs parked two Toyota Alphard seven-seater cars, including the one carrying Choi, side by side and nose to tail outside the rural flat shortly after 3pm on February 21.

Prosecutors previously contended that this arrangement would allow the defendants to move Choi’s body unseen through the narrow gap between the two vehicles.

Anthony described a tense silence as his father used a thin blanket to wrap Abby’s body and transferred it into two stacked-up storage boxes. He previously claimed he had bought the boxes for his father’s use in his supposed new home.

He said that Alex, who still appeared stunned by his actions, had opened one of the car doors in an apparent attempt to block the view of potential bystanders. He also insisted that he had not asked his younger sibling to do so.

Video footage showed Anthony uttering a seemingly cryptic sentence to Alex: “The important point is six, yeah?” The word “six” is phonetically the same as “boil” in Cantonese.

Anthony said he was “very much in a panic” at the time and spoke “nonsense” to his brother as he struggled to have a conversation with him.

Asked why Alex changed his clothes after Choi’s body had been moved into the flat, Anthony suggested that Alex’s shirt might have been drenched in tears as his brother had cried hysterically after killing his ex-wife.

Anthony maintained that there was no blood on Alex’s shirt or inside the vehicle, but said he decided to clean the car nonetheless.

“I wanted to clear the whole interior space of the car as if nothing had ever happened. It made me feel safer,” he added.

The trial continues before Deputy Judge Brian Keith and an eight-member jury.