appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

A former magistrate said yesterday he was shocked that a friend he considered to be the 'perfect gentleman' was on trial for stashing 820kg of high explosives.

 Barrister Ian Polson - who presided over criminal cases during the 1980s - spoke in defence of Lau Cheuk-fan, 32, one of a trio that allegedly helped 'Big Spender' Cheung Tze-keung store a potentially catastrophic amount of explosives.

 'It was a great shock to me,' Mr Polson said of Lau's arrest. 'And I can say it's entirely and completely out of character for him as I know him,' he told the Court of First Instance.

 'He behaves like a perfect gentleman. I've found him to be a very loving and devoted father, and he's also very respectful to his sisters,' he said yesterday.

 Mr Polson is the last witness in the month-long trial of Lau, Chan Sum-yau, 47, and Wong Fung-kei, 44. All three have pleaded not guilty to possessing 820kg of ammonium nitrate, fuel oil, wood chips and TNT with intent to cause severe damage and injury.

 Lau and Wong were secretly filmed at a compound in the New Territories allegedly moving boxes of high explosives alongside Cheung and others, including Lau's eldest brother, Lau Ting-fan.

 Lau said he was there to fix a car at the request of his eldest brother and was assured that helping him later transport some of the sealed boxes would do him no harm.

 'I told my eldest brother that I had a young child and a wife to take care of and that . . . I wouldn't like to get into anything which concerned Cheung Tze-keung,' he said in evidence.

 Mr Polson, a native of Adelaide, Australia, said he met 'Roy' (Lau's English name) through two of Lau's sisters, both of whom had lived in Adelaide.

 Lau denied that he knew he was transporting explosives when he drove Cheung's silver Mercedes with sealed boxes inside to an isolated shack in Ma Tso Lung village.

 'Throughout the incident, I did not look into the boxes for a single moment,' he said. 'If one were to transport explosives, one would not have chosen a Mercedes-Benz.'  The case continues before Mr Justice Peter Nguyen.



Accused 'always a perfect gentleman'