A love-sick midget killed and dismembered his prostitute lover after she demanded nearly double his monthly income, a court heard yesterday.
Chan Wing-hong, a 1.37-metre-tall installation worker, usually paid 39-year-old karaoke hostess Chow Mei-hing between $1,700 and $5,000 for sex.
Chan, 38, met Chow at a Mongkok karaoke bar last September. Within a month he had taken her out more than 10 times, putting a strain on his $10,000 monthly income.
On October 28, the prostitute went to Chan's Kwai Chung flat and events 'took a different turn', prosecutor Graeme Mackay told the Court of First Instance.
When Chow asked her lover for $16,000, he wrote a cheque drawing on an account belonging to his father's engineering company. But it could not be cashed without the firm's chop.
Mr Mackay said: 'Chan told her it would not be possible to validate it. After they argued about the cheque, she became angry.' The couple began struggling as Chow tried to snatch the cheque from Chan's hand. Chan grabbed a folding knife from a drawer and stabbed her in the neck, the court heard.