Man's death a week later was due to accidental poisoning, accused says
Four men accused of beating a mentally handicapped security guard to death had battered him a week before he died because he failed to get a mobile phone SIM card for one of them, a court heard yesterday.
One of the four, Lin Siu-lun, 33, also claimed Wong Wai-hung could have died not from the beatings prosecutors allege he received over a two to three-week period, but from accidentally drinking corrosive cleaning fluid, the Court of First Instance was told.
Lin is charged with Lau Ho-nam, 20, and Cheng Sze-lok, 20, with murdering Wong on March 7 last year, and all have pleaded not guilty. The fourth, Lau Cheuk-wah, is also charged but is not standing trial for medical reasons.
Lin is also accused, along with three men - Wong Chi-kwong, 27, Shit Chi-wo, 35, and Kwok Wai-tak, 26 - and two women, Ho Sau-ling, 17, and Cheng Chui-mei, 18, of conspiring to unlawfully dispose of the victim's corpse. They all deny the charge.
In a cautioned statement read in court yesterday, Lin said that a week before Wong Wai-hung died on March 7, they had visited Lau Cheuk-wah's flat. Lau, who had consumed ketamine, started teasing Wong.
Lau found out Wong had not obtained him a promised SIM card, and the teasing quickly escalated into an attack with Lau Ho-nam and Cheng later joining in, according to the statement.
