A woman who battered her husband to death after years of unhappiness in their arranged marriage told the court yesterday she had been raped, subject to domestic violence and had attempted suicide.
Cleaner Liu Chui-fa, 44, was testifying on the second day of the trial for beating her husband, Cheung Chok-choi, to death after he threw away valued possessions of hers.
She pleaded not guilty at the Court of First Instance to murdering her partner of 20 years in their flat in Fanling on August 22, 2011. Her guilty plea to manslaughter was not accepted by the prosecution.
Taking the stand yesterday, Liu, who is Indonesian-Chinese, said she was abandoned by her parents in Indonesia as a baby and was adopted by a farming family living in a small forest village.
But her stepfather proved to be abusive and raped her when she was a teenager, she said.
At 17, frustrated by her parents' command to marry someone for whom she felt no affection, she jumped off a building. She was bedridden for six months.
She met Cheung when relatives took her to Hong Kong for match-makers' interviews, the court was told. Although she didn't like Cheung, she married him a week after they met because she spent a lot to travel to the city.