Double murder co-accused 'not intelligent enough to plot crime', court told
Man on trial for helping kill and cut up friend's parents not intelligent enough to plan and carry out an elaborate crime, psychologist tells court
A man accused of teaming up with a friend to kill and dismember the friend's parents might not have been intelligent enough to plot the sophisticated crime, the Court of First Instance heard yesterday.
Tse Chun-kei, 38, took an IQ test after his arrest last year and had received a low score of just 84, a clinical psychologist who worked with the defendant told the court.
Tse and co-defendant Henry Chau, 31, each deny two counts of murder. They are alleged to have killed Chau's father Chau Wing-ki, 65, and mother Siu Yuet-yee, 63, on March 1, 2013. The couple's bodies were chopped into pieces with their heads stored in two refrigerators and other body parts in plastic boxes inside Tse's flat in Tai Kok Tsui.
Clinical psychologist Eddie Li Kam-wah said the low IQ score indicated below-average intelligence, adding that the defendant's general comprehension had been weak during his time working with him.
Li said the couple's murder had involved detailed preparation and consideration of a lot of different circumstances. Such planning was "beyond [Tse's] intellectual ability", the psychologist told the court.
Li said he met Tse about seven times last year and found that Tse did not have any kind of psychotic illness. Despite the defendant's low intelligence, Li found that Tse could easily cope with people and build relationships.
He told the court that Tse had always been bullied at school and had been let down in the various jobs he took, but harboured no resentment towards anyone else; he tended to take a positive view of other people.