Father, daughter reunited after sister’s suicide leap from Repulse Bay flat
Nick Cousins, 58, and his 14-year-old daughter appeared in a juvenile court at Eastern Magistracy yesterday, the girl smiling as they held hands.
A day after the 15-year-old daughter of a top British insurance executive plunged to her death from their luxury flat in Repulse Bay, her younger sister was reunited with their father following a night under government protection at a children's home in Tuen Mun.
Nick Cousins, 58, and his 14-year-old daughter appeared in a juvenile court at Eastern Magistracy yesterday, the girl smiling as they held hands.
She is being looked after by her family while the court considers a police application for the Social Welfare Department to take custody of the girl after Cousins and his Filipino partner, Grace Garcia, 53, were arrested on suspicion of ill-treating their daughters. A decision is expected next month.
The case stunned Hong Kong and the government is under pressure to explain how the family was able to keep a startling secret that was revealed only after the teenager jumped to her death in the early hours of Tuesday.
The girls are believed to have been born in Hong Kong but had never been to school and possessed no identity documents.
While Cousins was released on bail after his arrest on Tuesday, Garcia, formerly a domestic helper, will appear in court today to face charges of overstaying her visa and ill-treating or neglecting a child.
People who knew them through their social and business circles could recollect little to suggest the outwardly ordinary family had so much to hide.
A long-term expatriate who knows the parents socially described Nick Cousins as down to earth and decent. He added that Mr Cousins was "not the Hong Kong Club type" - a reference to the exclusive club where some wealthy expats hang out.