Abby Choi’s ex-brother-in-law tells court he treated her like a ‘biological sibling’

The former brother-in-law of slain Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi Tin-fung has said he treated her like a biological sibling, while claiming that he had maintained an affluent facade in front of her friends to protect her reputation.

Anthony Kwong Kong-kit took the witness box for the first time on Monday since going on trial in the High Court alongside his father and younger brother for allegedly conspiring to kill the influencer on February 21, 2023.

The 35-year-old 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 Kwong brothers admitted to preventing the burial of the 28-year-old model’s body before the trial began in late September. Kwong Kau, a retired police sergeant, also pleaded guilty to the charge midway through the trial.

Prosecutors contended that Anthony was behind the wheel on February 21, when his younger brother attacked Choi with a hammer in the back seat of their car. The brothers allegedly led Choi to believe they were on their way to pick up her eight-year-old daughter from her international school in Pak Shek Kok.

Parts of Choi’s dismembered remains, including her head and legs, were discovered in a 600 sq ft rental flat in Tai Po’s Lung Mei village three days later.

Opening the defence’s case on Monday, Anthony’s legal counsel, Trevor Beel, highlighted his client’s close relationship with the deceased as he sought to counter accusations that he had clung onto his former in-law’s wealth before the alleged offences.

The court heard Anthony, who said he preferred to be addressed as Damon, had used his father’s retirement savings and his mother’s earnings from her boutique business to pursue a university degree in the United States between 2011 and 2015.

He said he had planned to stay in the country after completing a two-year economics degree at the University of California, Irvine.

But the defendant was forced to return to Hong Kong in May 2015 after his mother told him his younger brother had become involved in a HK$6.3 million theft case, the court heard.

Anthony said he was asked to look after his nephew and niece, who were both infants at the time, in case Alex “went away” to mainland China.

According to Anthony, Alex left Hong Kong in June 2015 and started investing in real estate projects across the border after he became acquainted with people whom he described as “capable and rather wealthy”.

Alex regularly sent part of his investment profits to a Hong Kong money exchange shop, and Anthony would collect the money and give it to Choi, the court heard.

The defendant also told the court that Alex and Choi had been supporting their two children financially until 2023 through earnings from investments in mainland China and from reselling luxury watches.

Anthony said he was not close to Choi at first and did not realise she had broken up with his brother in 2015. When the model became pregnant the following year, he initially thought that the baby belonged to Alex instead of her new partner, Chris Tam Fong-chun.

The defendant said his relationship with Choi became closer after his brother’s departure.

“I did not want the children [between Alex and Choi] to grow without paternal love, so I spent most of my time with them unless I had other engagements with friends,” he said.

“I saw Abby every day and as time went by, month after month and year after year, naturally the family bond developed … The bond between us became like one shared by biological siblings.”

Anthony said his relationship with Choi and Tam became so close that they would go out for meals five days a week, and that he would regularly join gatherings with the couple and their friends, who included company owners and investment bankers.

But the defendant said neither Tam nor the couple’s friends knew his humble background or the fact that he was living at a subsidised flat in Tsuen Wan’s Sheung Man Court.

“Abby cared more about her face. She liked people around her to look relatively wealthy in order not to damage her reputation,” he said.

The influencer also allegedly asked Anthony to lie about his residential address by claiming he was living at the Ocean Pride development near Tsuen Wan West station.

The trial continues before Deputy Judge Brian Keith and a nine-member jury.