Tsui not unstable but was 'full of himself' - analyst

Tsui Po-ko, the police constable believed to have killed two fellow officers and a bank security guard, did not suffer from a mental illness or personality disorder, the Coroner's Court heard yesterday.

Rather, his problem was his narcissistic and confident character, a forensic psychiatrist told the inquest into the deaths of Tsui and his three suspected victims.

Yuen Cheung-hang, who interviewed Tsui's family before conducting an assessment of him after his death, said the dead policeman's brother believed Tsui could have done the things he is suspected of - murdering constable Leung Shing-yan and security guard Zafar Iqbal Khan in 2001 and killing constable Tsang Kwok-hang and wounding Constable Sin Ka-keung in the Tsim Sha Tsui shoot-out last year.

'According to his brother, Tsui had repeatedly said he felt life was boring and his job offered no challenge,' Dr Yuen said. 'Tsui's brother also mentioned Tsui wanted to be a policeman because of the financial protection it can give and the care from the government ... It showed Tsui was quite a calculating person.'

Dr Yuen said Tsui was also a very stubborn person who never listened to others and was full of himself. 'But he was a very calm person, in that no one in the family had ever seen him agitated.' According to his wife, Tsui was a very good husband and father, the psychiatrist said.

'From the time he was very small, he had taken up the habit of reading Chinese literature and he was especially interested in stories of Hitler. He had told his mother that he wanted to be Dr Sun Yat-sen the second.'

Dr Yuen noted Tsui could also have been affected by Wolf Totem - a Jian Rong novel about the lives of Mongolians on the grasslands and their complicated feelings towards the wolf. It describes the valiant, courageous and strong characters of the wolf forged in the bitter natural environment it inhabits.