A TELEVISION news item inspired a 77-year-old pensioner to try to kill himself after he chopped his wife of 50 years to death.
Lau Chuen was so moved by the broadcast, documenting the suicide death of a film star's mother, that he faxed letters to TVB, ATV and the Government detailing how he himself had been driven to the point of suicide by his wife's deeds.
The TV report described actor Ti Lung's mother as a woman with loving children and plenty of money. Old age and ill health were the motives behind her death leap.
'Lau compared his life to that of this unknown woman and began to feel miserable,' lawyer John Halley, for the defendant, told Mr Justice Stuart-Moore.
Lau survived on a monthly pension of $1,000, suffered from emphysema and asthma and had developed cataracts on both eyes.
But Lau's wife was indifferent to his suffering, Mr Halley said. Although he could barely walk, she never lifted a finger to help him.
