Vet denies beating and threatening girlfriend
A veterinarian yesterday denied allegations that he had beaten his girlfriend and had threatened to inject her with a chemical used to euthanise animals.
Tsoi Sheung-ki, 37, was giving evidence in the District Court after Judge Anthea Pang Po-kam ruled on the third day of the trial that there was a case to answer.
Tsoi said Vanessa Chu Man-wah, 29, his girlfriend, had an emotional outburst after he discovered that she had gone out for meals with other men and had posed for pictures with them while dating him.
Chu claimed Tsoi had threatened to inject her with pentobarbital sodium using a 50ml syringe.
However, Tsoi said that was unlikely, because all the syringes would have been used by another vet in an earlier operation.
Tsoi, who started a relationship with Chu in December 2009, pleaded not guilty to assault, false imprisonment and criminal intimidation.
Earlier, the court heard claims that the couple, who both worked at Sai Sha Road Animal Hospital, Ma On Shan, had argued at the hospital after work on August 15 last year.
It is alleged that Tsoi pushed Chu towards a wall, held her by the neck and took her to an operating room, where he took out a syringe and a pink liquid.
Tsoi told the court that he had been planning to break up with Chu and intended to reconcile with his former girlfriend, with whom he had a seven-year-old son.
He said on the night of the alleged offences, he logged into Chu's Facebook account and found photos of her with other men. After a heated quarrel, Chu threw a computer and a printer on the floor. She also threw a dumbbell at an air conditioner.
'Whether or not there was anything on her Facebook account, I had already formed my mind to break up with her when my former girlfriend returned from the United States.'
