Updated at 5.02pm: Three jobless men hoping to become millionaires abducted the son of acclaimed actress-director Sylvia Chang Ai-chia near their home last July, a court heard on Thursday.
Police found nine-year-old Justin Oscar Wang, blindfolded inside a suitcase after intercepting two of his kidnappers outside a hotel room on July 12, 2000. The boy was not hurt in his seven-day ordeal, prosecutor Robert Lee Kan-yung told the Court of First Instance.
Leung Man-kwong, 22, Tsang Yiu-tung, 20, and Yuen Lee-man, 20, pleaded guilty to a joint charge of forcibly taking or detaining a person with intent to procure a ransom. The three initially demanded $15 million but the sum was later negotiated down to $8 million. The boy's family went to police; no sum was ever paid.
Tsang devised the kidnap plan 18 months after carrying out some leakage proof work at the victim's home. He discovered the boy's mother was a film star when he saw family photographs, Mr Lee said.
Tsang invited Leung and Yuen to take part in the crime and promised them one-fourth of the ransom. Mr Justice Louis Tong Po-sun adjourned sentencing to February 12.