Anthony Kwong destroyed Abby Choi’s things, discarded them with ‘pork bones’, court hears

The brother-in-law of slain Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi Tin-fung has admitted in court to destroying her personal belongings after her death and discarding them at his father’s behest together with what he believed to be “pork bones” cooked with carrots and radishes.

Anthony Kwong Kong-kit also told the High Court on Friday that he had helped his father clean up knives and tools in a rural village flat where Choi’s dismembered remains were found, while lying to her family and police about her whereabouts.

He said he had only followed his father’s instructions to help him dispose of “rubbish” without ever suspecting it could contain dismembered body parts.

Under cross-examination by his co-defendants’ lawyers, Anthony claimed that Choi had maintained a romantic relationship with her ex-husband, Alex Kwong Kong-chi, after they separated in 2015.

The defendant said he saw the former couple kiss on the lips and share a bedroom during a family trip to the mainland Chinese province of Hainan in 2017 or 2018, adding that his younger brother had continued to use affectionate terms when speaking to his ex-wife on the phone.

Alex’s lawyer, Andrew Raffell, suggested that Choi saw her new partner, Chris Tam Fong-chun, as “more of a bank than a husband”, and that she had developed a relationship with him only for his money. Anthony said he was unsure about this claim.

Anthony, 35, was testifying for a fifth day in his former sister-in-law’s murder trial. He is contesting a joint count of murder alongside Alex, 31, and their father, Kwong Kau, who turned 69 on Friday.

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

Prosecutors allege that Alex killed the influencer with a hammer while Anthony was driving them to Pak Shek Kok to pick up their daughter from school on February 21, 2023.

Anthony earlier claimed that his brother had strangled Choi in a fit of rage after she hurled insults at him during the car ride, but medical findings suggested that the model was killed after being struck in the head seven times with a blunt object.

In cross-examination, Raffell referred to a covert letter Anthony sent to his client last year via a prisoner at Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre. The brothers are both remanded in that facility for the present case.

In the four-page handwritten letter, Anthony portrayed his father as the real perpetrator who killed Choi during a “showdown” at a car park in Tai Mei Tuk, after the influencer asked to meet her former father-in-law there.

Anthony said he concocted the story in the letter as he thought it was convincing enough to exculpate them.

“During the two to three years in custody, I kept pondering an account that could minimise our culpabilities and make it better for us,” he said.

“After multiple exchanges with my younger brother, we cooked up this story with our little smartness. We thought it was very good.”

Raffell argued the letter’s claims were in fact the truth, but Anthony insisted he had made it up.

Some of Choi’s dismembered remains, including her head and legs, were discovered in a 600-square-foot rental flat in Tai Po’s Lung Mei village on February 24, 2023.

Anthony said his role in the illegal disposal of Choi’s body was limited to affixing plastic sheets in the bedroom of the village flat, cleaning tools and discarding waste at his father’s behest.

He said he recalled his father walking back and forth between the bedroom and the kitchen when they were in the flat between February 21 and 23, but he never asked him what he was doing.

Anthony admitted helping his father throw away rubbish bags he believed to contain soup leftovers, including carrots, radishes and “something like pork bones”.

The defendant said the bags’ contents had never raised his suspicions.

“Indeed, when someone buys carrots and radishes, they may buy pork bones as well,” he said.

Anthony stated that Choi’s mother, Cheung Yin-fa, called him at around 11pm on February 21, asking about her daughter’s whereabouts.

He admitted that he had lied to her, saying he was about to go to bed. He claimed he had instead stayed up overnight to wash various items for his father in the bathroom of the village flat.

Anthony said he and his father went to a cemetery in Tseung Kwan O the next morning, to burn joss paper in memory of Choi. After that, he drove the seven-seater car used to transport Choi’s body to a car wash in Mong Kok to have the vehicle thoroughly cleaned.

He said he returned to the Tai Po flat on the night of February 22 and stayed in the bathroom washing things “for no real purpose”.

The defendant said he also saw chopped carrots and radishes placed next to two boiling soup pots in the kitchen. He denied buying the vegetables.

He also insisted that he did not care where Alex was at that time because he “had no time to care about these matters”.

On the morning of February 23, Anthony went to the village flat for a third time and cut Choi’s identity card and credit cards into shreds, as his father had asked, the court heard. He did so without question because he was “stupefied” at the time, he said.

Later that afternoon, the defendant met with Tam and a police officer in Ho Man Tin and drove the pair to Tai Po to show them where he claimed he had dropped Choi off.

Anthony said he did not initially reveal Alex’s presence in the car on February 21 to the police officer as he wanted to cover up for him.

Police later took Anthony for further questioning at the force’s Kowloon West regional headquarters, before arresting him at 2am on February 24.

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