WHEN born-again Christian Patrick David Wong, 38, walked out of the Supreme Court this week, he was jubilant. Acquitted of manslaughter charges for the gruesome death of Brenda Wong Tze-kwan, he had spent almost four years in prison after years of addiction to gambling and hard drugs, particularly cocaine.
His pretty new wife Shirley, also a member of the charismatic religious sect, the Children of God, was by his side, also victorious. She had thrown herself at the mercy of the court, and pleaded her husband's innocence and they had accepted her faith in him. Now Patrick Wong let it be known, as he embraced his new bride for the benefit of the cameras, a new and reformed life lay ahead for him.
His life of drugs, gambling and womanising was behind him, he said, as was the flamboyance and the unproven allegations that he traded drugs in prison. ''God made me decide to marry,'' he said. ''We are in love. I am going to stay with her for the rest of my life. I have found real faith in God and I will stay with it.'' He said he would stay in Hongkong for a while and work for the voluntary Prisoners' Friends Foundation, in Sha Tin. Then the couple quickly departed the courts. Presumably, the former Catholic and chartered bus company driver has retreated into the welcoming arms of fellow members of the Children of God sect in Macau. But nobody is sure.
Patrick Wong has spent the past four years in jail but it's only recently that he has found a new God, and the cast of cynics in the two trials he has survived believe he has more likely fled from further prosecution.
About 200 yards away, protected from clicking cameras, another journey was being undertaken by the beautiful Kitty Yu Mo-ling, but not to freedom. Her next stop was a cell, a short ride she reportedly made unmoved and expressionless, to serve the remaining time of her seven-year sentence.
Her life was in ruins. She had spent her life savings to help feed Wong drugs and maintain his other addiction, gambling, particularly at the races. She had few friends, no money and only remnants of a reputation. Her association with Wong had led to herown addiction to cocaine and the humiliation of her rejection by Wong during their first trial for the murder of 28-year-old Brenda Wong Tze-kwan, in 1989.