Body kept in box of salt, court told

A teenager chopped her live-in lover to death and kept part of his corpse in a box of salt in a bedroom of their home, a jury heard yesterday.

Yik Po-man, now 20, denies murdering Cheung Wai-man, 22, at their Tai Hing Estate flat, in Tuen Mun, on or about February 11 last year after an argument over her alleged infidelity.

She threw away Cheung's arm and leg, wrapped in supermarket bags, and kept the rest of his body in a box in the flat, prosecutor Peter Cahill told the Court of First Instance.

Giving evidence at the trial yesterday, Cheung's childhood friend, Lau Chi-sing, 25, said he was outside the 29th-floor flat about to pay a visit when Cheung cried out from behind the closed door: 'Don't hit. Don't hit.' Mr Lau said he demanded entry to the flat but Yik would not let him in. 'She told me to go away. I did not go away but kept knocking on the door,' he said.

He said a 'nervous' Yik later opened the door slightly and threw out a bag, a mobile phone and battery charger, which Mr Lau had previously left at the flat.

He said he again asked to enter, but was told by Yik that it was not convenient as Cheung had hurt his head and foot.