Henry Chau 'decided to murder his parents for putting pressure on him'
Son of dismembered couple had initially planned to commit suicide, court hears
A man on trial for murdering and dismembering his parents told police he had considered killing himself in a fit of depression but changed his mind after a friend told him he could resolve his problems by killing someone else instead, a court heard yesterday.
Henry Chau, 30, decided to kill his parents because they were the ones who put the most pressure on him, he said in a video interview shown in the Court of First Instance.
Chau said he became extremely depressed when he turned 29 and told his co-accused Tse Chun-kei, 38, of his plan to commit suicide when they met for coffee in September 2012. He described Tse as a total loser, like himself.
Tse suggested instead that Chau take "revenge on the world" by killing someone else.
"At that moment, I thought that the two people who gave the greatest pressure to me were the two of them," Chau said, referring to his father Chau Wing-ki, 65, and mother Siu Yuet-yee, 62.
He said his father was an arrogant man who left him without a moment's peace. His mother always looked at him sadly when he did not contribute to the family. "I thought that if I could resolve the emotional connection with my parents, it would be a solution," he said. "If they died, I could be reborn."
The pair discussed the plan for about 10 minutes each week and he once went to Shenzhen to see whether it would be a better place for the killings, Chau said.
On March 1 last year, he said, he invited his parents to see the flat in Tai Kok Tsui that he shared with Tse. When the couple arrived, he and Tse attacked them from behind.
His mother stopped moving "within a minute" after receiving a slash to her neck from Tse, Chau said. His father, whom he had attacked, struggled, prompting Tse to join in and slash the 65-year-old's neck until he died.
Chau said he "did not have any feeling at all" when his parents were killed. "I felt frightened and nervous as I saw a lot of blood there, but I did not worry about their deaths," he said.
Chau said Tse was in charge of the disposal, coming up with ideas like covering the remains with cement and sand to disguise them as bricks, and cooking them like barbecued pork and dumping them in the rubbish. But the "bricks" were too heavy and the "meat" did not look like pork.
Tse then decided on covering the body parts with sand and throwing them into the sea, Chau said. He admitted to helping Tse throw a bag with a hand he believed was his mother's into the sea near their flat.
Chau and Tse deny murdering the couple. The trial continues before Deputy Judge Michael Stuart-Moore today.
