A woman who lived in an unhappy arranged marriage for 20 years beat her husband to death with a hammer after he threw away her possessions, a court heard yesterday.
Cleaner Liu Chui-fa, 44, grabbed a hammer discarded by her husband, Cheung Chok-choi, and delivered a flurry of brutal blows to his head at the couple's public housing flat in Fanling on August 22 of last year, the Court of First Instance heard.
Liu has pleaded guilty to manslaughter but the prosecution refuses to accept her plea, arguing that the killing of her husband was murder.
The defendant argued that she was provoked by her partner of 20 years, a fishmonger, after he grabbed her by the neck in an argument about clearing out the flat in Yiu Ming House, Wah Ming Estate. She said it had been one of a series of violent incidents in their years together.
Liu, who is Indonesian-Chinese, said relatives bought her to Hong Kong in 1988 for match-up interviews. She was introduced to several men, including Cheung. Although she didn't like him, she married him a week after they met because she had spent a lot to come to the city.
The couple slept in separate rooms for most of their time together and one of their sons described the relationship as like a business deal.
