Police got 7 calls to death flat in 3 years
Mentally ill mother who jumped to death had a history of losing control of herself
Police had been sent to the Tin Shui Wai home of the family involved in Sunday's murder-suicide seven or eight times in the past three years when the mentally ill mother had lost control of herself. The revelation came yesterday as the welfare chief pledged to review welfare resources in Tin Shui Wai.
Mak Fuk-tai, 36, jumped to her death from her 24th-floor flat in Yiu Fung House, Tin Yiu Estate, at about 4am, minutes after her children, Chan Po-yee, 12, and Chan Tung-man, nine, were thrown to their deaths, their hands and feet bound.
A suicide note to Mak's husband - Chan Kai-lam, 47, a terminally ill cancer patient in Tuen Mun Hospital - said she was unhappy and stressed.
A police source said Mak had a record of suicide attempts in 2004 and her husband had called police seven or eight times in the past three years when his wife lost control.
The woman had calmed down before officers arrived and all the cases were classified as 'insane person found', a police source said.
'But she was sent to hospital for a check-up each time and social workers followed her case,' he added.
Police are investigating whether the children were drugged before being thrown from the flat or were simply tied up while asleep.
There was no sign of a struggle in the flat, an investigator said. A number of items, including food and drink, had been seized from the flat.
Postmortem results show all three died from multiple injuries after falling from a height. Police are still waiting for toxicological results.
Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung Kin-chung yesterday pledged to conduct a review of welfare needs in Tin Shui Wai. 'We will discuss with [service] groups in the area to see what we can do together,' he said at a special meeting of the Legislative Council's welfare services panel. 'We won't rule out pouring more resources in.'
He said the review would be completed by the end of the year and handed to the Legislative Council.
But Yuen Long District Council vice-chairman Leung Che-cheung said this was too slow.
Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong chairman Tam Yiu-chung said Mr Cheung had told him in another meeting that a six-member team, including doctors and social workers, would be set up by the Society of Rehabilitation and Crime Prevention in Tin Wah Estate to provide outreach services for mentally ill patients in Yuen Long this month.
Mr Tam said this was not enough. Mr Cheung said the most important thing was to get the service started.
Legislators decried the Social Welfare Department's helpline services as being insufficient and Mr Cheung said more resources would be allocated to improve the services.
In the long run, he said, the 1823 Citizen's Easy Link hotline would be used to answer general calls so social workers could deal with urgent calls for counselling more promptly.
Mr Cheung promised to follow up with health chief York Chow Yat-ngok on complaints that patients with depression had to wait months to be seen.
Chinese University assistant psychology professor Winnie Mak Wing-sze said the city's 200 to 300 clinical psychologists were insufficient to serve the city's 7 million people.
She said more psychologists could help cut waiting times for mental health services in public hospitals.
