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SCMP Reporter

A BIZARRE cult used terror and violence to trap members trying to escape, the District Court heard yesterday.

   Two police sergeants were said to be at the heart of 'supernatural martial arts' sect.

  A former member described how threats and beatings forced him to stay in the Sin Tao Tan long after he had become disenchanted.

  Kwan Kwok-yue said when he refused to pay the sect $300, Li Wai-man, a police sergeant, put a curse on him.

  'He said 'destruction of the house and family',' Mr Kwan told the court.

   'I understood the consequences would be serious. There would be a beating.

  'The master [Yuen Chong] said something about throwing me into the street.'    On June 3, 1993, Mr Kwan told Li he wanted to leave the sect.

  The officer warned Mr Kwan if he decided to quit, he would no longer be allowed to use the Sin Tao Tan name or its special Chinese medicine.

  'I was delighted,' Mr Kwan said.

  'I thought he was saying I could leave. I thought that an agreement had been reached.'   But five days later Mr Kwan learned he had been mistaken.

  Li met him and demanded he pay an active member's fee.

  He was threatened after refusing.

  Mr Kwan feared he would meet with the same fate as lapsed member Chang Po.

  'The master had got some persons together to beat him,' he said. 'There were water pipes placed underneath a chair. We were asked to beat him.'   Chan Hing-wah, another former member, said the master used beatings as punishment for treachery.

  'He said if people indicated disloyalty, they would be beaten,' Mr Chan said.

  Yuen, 64, has pleaded not guilty to assault and blackmail. Li, 36, and So Kung-lai, 38, a police sergeant, denied blackmail. Yu Wang-kwan, 46, denied assault.

  On March 25 last year, lapsed member Lo Chi-kong met Li and So at a Wan Chai restaurant to discuss his 'traitorous' behaviour.

  They demanded he explain himself to Yuen, and took him to the guru's Hunghom headquarters.

  There he was made to kneel for an hour awaiting interrogation.

  When Yuen appeared, he accused his former disciple of committing five offences.

  He was accused of not being benevolent, not being righteous, not being filial, not being respectful and being disloyal.

  Then Yuen told Yu to take a rattan cane from a box beside an altar and strike Mr Lo five times. Yuen told Mr Lo that his defection had drawn the wrath of the gods, robbing him of his ability to recruit new members.

   The court was told the sect master had demanded $100,000 compensation for the loss, and another $40,000 for Chinese medicine purchased for Mr Lo 10 years earlier.

  The two sergeants were said to have been put in charge of collecting the money.

  The trial continues before Judge Caird.



Cult terror regime denied