Police officer denies evidence was contaminated at flat in Abby Choi murder trial

A police officer investigating the alleged murder of Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi Tin-fung has denied tampering with the evidence he collected from a rural village flat where her dismembered remains were found.

Detective Constable Chan Wai-hung on Wednesday rejected a defence contention that the alleged crime scene in Tai Po’s Lung Mei village had been contaminated because investigating officers failed to follow proper procedures.

Testifying under cross-examination in the High Court, Chan maintained that he was the sole officer responsible for seizing evidence from the site, while his four colleagues kept watch without touching anything.

Choi’s ex-husband, Alex Kwong Kong-chi, 31, his father, Kwong Kau, 68, and elder brother, Anthony Kwong Kong-kit, 35, stand accused of murdering the influencer on February 21, 2023.

The elder Kwong, a retired police sergeant, is also contesting a charge of preventing the lawful burial of the 28-year-old’s body. His two sons pleaded guilty to the offence before the trial began last month.

Defence lawyers sought to undermine the prosecution’s case by challenging police’s handling of evidence seized from the 600 square foot rental flat, where parts of Choi’s remains were discovered on February 24, 2023.

Anthony Kwong’s legal counsel Trevor Beel argued that Chan’s four colleagues had also combed the premises, thereby undermining the integrity of the investigation as he could not ascertain that they did not tamper with the evidence. Chan denied the assertion.

Prosecutors previously alleged that Alex Kwong used a one-pound ball-peen hammer to hit Choi on the head during a car journey she believed was to fetch her eight-year-old daughter from school on February 21, 2023. The hammer was recovered from the village flat three days later.

Chan noted that while no bloodstains or human tissue were found on the hammer, it could still be linked to the case.

Constable Leung Man-tat, of the force’s identification bureau, testified that he wore protective equipment while attempting to extract finger and palm prints from evidence at the scene.

The court heard the three defendants’ finger and palm prints were found in 50 locations inside the flat.

Anthony Kwong’s fingerprints were allegedly lifted from the surface of a refrigerator in which Choi’s severed legs were found, as well as from multiple sections of adhesive tape used to affix plastic sheet coverings in a bedroom.

Finger and palm prints lifted from two electric saws’ instruction manuals were identified as belonging to Anthony Kwong and his father while Alex Kwong’s fingerprints were found on two mobile phone bills on a dining table.

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