Boy cries in court over photo of dead mother
A teenager testifying at his father's murder trial wept yesterday after he was shown a photo of his dead mother and asked to identify what was knotted around her neck.
The boy, Ling Siu-tong, 16, broke down after prosecutor Arthur Luk Yee-shun asked him: 'In the photo you can see something hanging from the neck. Have you seen this item before in the flat?'
Siu-tong later identified the item in the photograph, a brown and cream diamond-patterned tie, as being similar to the one his father had worn on a previous occasion.
Ling Kam-wah, 37, has pleaded not guilty in the Court of First Instance to murdering his wife, Ho Wai-chun, 44, at their Mongkok home on February 1 last year.
Siu-tong, who was 15 at the time of the killing, told the court his parents were having a quarrel that was 'more serious' than usual shortly before he found his mother's body.
He said that after his mother, who sold bird's nest at a local store, refused to give his unemployed father any more money, Ling slapped her across the face, after which Ho kicked back.
Siu-tong said he was frightened by the intensity of the fight, which continued for another 15 minutes.
He said that at one stage he heard his mother exclaim 'it hurt'.
'Then my mother told my father not to play and she said that she would give it [the money]. About one to two seconds later she said, 'You will regret it'. On hearing that I turned around and saw my mother lying on the floor.'
He said that before he noticed his mother on the floor, he saw his father standing behind her with his arm around her throat. Siu-tong told the court his father attended to his mother's body for one to two minutes before leaving the flat, but he was unable to see what he was doing because his father's body blocked his view.
He later found his mother with her wrists and ankles bound and not breathing, he said.
'After my father had left I went up to my mother and put my finger under her nose. I found that she did not have any breath,' Siu-tong said.
When his grandfather suddenly appeared at the door, he blocked his entrance and asked him to go downstairs with him, from where he called his father on his mobile phone.
He said his father told him that 'mother was dead', but the boy should ignore it and not be frightened as he had no involvement in the death.
The case before Mr Justice Gareth Lugar-Mawson continues today.
