Actress-turned-solicitor Mary Jean Reimer and her mother were behind the 'vicious' attack on high-profile lawyer Andrew Lam Ping-cheung in which his face was slashed last April, the District Court heard yesterday.
The court was told the attack occurred a week after Lam's complaint to the Law Society, alleging that Ms Reimer had abused her role as a lawyer by falsely claiming to be paying legal visits at Stanley Prison to Yip Kai-foon, one of Hong Kong's most notorious gangsters, to disguise her true intention of researching her book on Yip.
The allegations were made by Lam's defence counsel yesterday to cast doubt on the credibility of Ms Reimer as a witness against Lam, who, with three other defendants - including barrister Kevin Egan - were accused of launching a campaign to press the ICAC to release a participant on the witness protection programme in July 2004.
Barrister Graham Harris put to Ms Reimer yesterday that within a week of Lam's complaint to the Law Society, her mother, whose name was not revealed in court, caused threats to be made to his client through a man named Eugene Chuang.
'Within a day or so of the threats, Mr Lam was viciously attacked - the whole of a side of his face was opened up with a carpet knife,' said Mr Harris. 'I suggest to you that, directly or indirectly, you were behind the attack through your mother.'
Ms Reimer, after a warning from Chief District Court Judge Barnabas Fung Wah that she had the right to not incriminate herself, denied the allegations. She claimed Lam met her mother shortly after the attack on April 18 last year. 'Mr Lam apologised to my mother because he had misunderstood that it was she who caused someone to cut open his face,' she said.
The counsel also suggested it was an 'open secret' that her mother was a 'senior triad'. She denied the suggestion.