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78-year-old calls police to confess to fatal chopping of his wife

Martin Wong

A 78-year-old man was arrested after telling police he had chopped his wife to death at their Tseung Kwan O home yesterday morning.

Police received the husband's call on the emergency hotline at about 8.45am.

'The man said he had assaulted his 67-year-old wife with a chopper at his residence in Po Lam Estate, Tseung Kwan O,' a police spokesman said.

Officers rushed to the home on the 26th floor of Po Tai House and found the wife lying unconscious on the living-room floor with a chopper beside her. She was declared dead by paramedics at the scene.

The husband was sitting in the living room when police arrived. He was taken to Tseung Kwan O Hospital for a medical check-up before being arrested for murder. Police detained him for questioning last night.

'Our initial examination found multiple chop wounds on the woman's head, nape of her neck and both hands,' said James Wong Cheung-ming, acting assistant district commander of Kwun Tong.

'We believe it was a domestic dispute, but then we did not see many signs of struggle at the home,' Mr Wong said.

The couple were retired and lived with two sons in their 30s. The sons were not home when the chopping occurred.

The family had no record of criminal behaviour or mental illness, and had never sought assistance from the Social Welfare Department, Mr Wong said.

A neighbour of the family, who gave her name as Mrs Lau, said she had sometimes heard the couple quarrelling. 'But they were only verbal arguments.'

Roy Lam, assistant executive director of Against Elderly Abuse, said the case showed the elderly should find positive ways to resolve problems, while families, neighbours and social workers should pay them more attention.

'It is obvious that the couple had a tense relationship for quite a while,' he said. 'Family members should have tried to help them before it reached the boiling point. Neighbours could also have tried to help, or asked social workers to help.

'We need more resources. Many elderly people simply do not know how and where they can ask for help,' he said.

There were 1,193 reported cases of domestic violence in the first six months of this year - up slightly from 1,147 in the same period last year.

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