Hong Kong murder files: the British soldiers sentenced to hang for Chinese woman’s brutal 1952 killing
They were the first Europeans in post-war Hong Kong to face the hangman’s noose – two soldiers who bludgeoned a civilian to death on the way to a New Territories dance. A retired policeman delves into a shocking crime
As trucks rumble past on busy Fan Kam Road, south of Fanling, in the New Territories, a retired Hong Kong police officer is searching along the verges for the scene of a violent murder.
On December 23, 1952, while many in the British colony prepared for Christmas, farmer Cheung Yan-kwai discovered the body of a young woman – later identified as 33-year-old Ho Sze-mui – while grazing his cows. She had been bludgeoned to death, possibly sexually assaulted and left for dead in a ditch at the side of this remote military road, then known as Route 2.
Cheung’s gruesome discovery triggered an intensive police investigation that led to the arrest of two young British soldiers who were tried and convicted of Ho’s killing, becoming the first Europeans to be sentenced to death in post-war Hong Kong.
“Obviously, if this is the scene, we are not going to find anything after all this time,” says former Hong Kong chief inspector Richard Cresswell, his view fixed on the undergrowth at the side of the road. “However, we might find a memorial-type shrine to Ho Sze-mui.”
It’s difficult to determine the exact spot where the corpse was discovered but, as Cresswell clears away vegetation with a broom handle, he reveals a narrow ditch about two metres deep, which matches the description in case files.
From 1982 to 1984, Cresswell was assistant divisional commander (operations and crime) at Pat Heung Police Station, less than 3km away, but he knew nothing about the crime until he stumbled across a report in a back issue of a police magazine a few months ago.
