John Fang tells inquest he did not try to reach Annie Pang after skeleton found

Lawyer John Fang Meng-sang made no attempt to contact model Annie Pang Chor-ying after a skeleton was found in the flat she rented from him, he told the inquest into her death yesterday.

'I left that [the identity of the skeleton] to forensic experts,' said Mr Fang, the 61-year-old brother of former chief secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang.

Questioned by Mary Jean Reimer, the solicitor representing Pang's family at the inquest, Mr Fang told the Coroner's Court he was not interested in the identity of the corpse, found in the Yau Ma Tei flat by one of his employees.

Ms Reimer reminded Mr Fang that Yeung Kwai-choi, at the time employed by Mr Fang's law firm, was the first person to report finding Pang's skeleton, on October 7, 1999 - five years after she was last seen alive and the day after Mr Fang visited the premises himself.

He insisted he would have reported finding the skeleton to police if he had seen it as 'I am not a chicken-hearted person'.

But Mr Fang said he had no reason to contact Pang after Mr Yeung's discovery, adding he no longer had Pang's phone number. He said he rented the flat to Pang for only $1 after he promised her she could live there indefinitely.

Mr Fang again testified that he went to the flat one day before Mr Yeung after neighbours complained about water damage his flat was causing to the building. He said he had been 'threatened' by the chairman of the building's owners' corporation that the leakage would be reported to police if he did not solve the matter.