A retired bus mechanic not only asked his wife to kill him but to use a larger hammer so fewer blows would be needed, a jury heard yesterday. Li So-man, 41, denies murdering Yee Kwok-chui, 61, at their Shamshuipo home on August 31 last year. But she gave police two versions of events that led to Yee's death, prosecutor Edward Laskey told the Court of First Instance. Police were alerted by Yee's niece after she received a call from Li saying: 'Your uncle is not going to make it this time.' Li said she had no choice as her husband threatened to kill her and their two children and commit suicide the next day. She was so scared she did what he asked. In a videotaped interview after her arrest on September 1, Li said Yee suggested she use the bigger of two hammers or 'it would take more blows and he would suffer longer'. But in a second videotaped interview, she changed her story, saying Yee had become angry with their son, Yee Chi-ho, then 17, after he came home late for dinner on the night of his death. Li said she fetched a hammer to shield her son from his father's attack, but Yee - a mechanic with Kowloon Motor Bus until he retired in August last year - rushed over and bumped his head on the weapon. The couple were wed in an arranged marriage on the mainland in 1980. They had their son the next year and a daughter, Sau-yee, five years later. 'It seems husband and wife did not get along and there were numerous quarrels, some heated and possibly violent,' said Mr Laskey. The trial continues today before Madam Justice Clare-Marie Beeson.
