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SCMP Reporter

THE Tuen Mun killer is mentally ill, suffering from a long-standing psychopathic personality disorder which means he lacks control over his impulses, a High Court jury heard yesterday.

  Lam Kwok-wai, 22, a decoration worker, has admitted killing two women in Tuen Mun and another woman in Hunghom, but has denied murder. He claims he was suffering from diminished responsibility at the time.

  The court heard that on each occasion between February and May last year, Lam followed his victims into lifts as they returned home in the early hours of the morning, and strangled them.

  Lam decided not to give evidence in his own defence, but called two psychiatrists to testify that he was suffering from an abnormality of the mind which substantially impaired his responsibility for the killings.

  Dr Barry Connell told the court that Lam had a 'rather dreadful family history'. His mother abandoned the family when he was three and his father was violent, abusive and probably an alcoholic.

  Lam, who was the fourth of five children, experienced little affection or caring during his childhood and adolescence.

  As a child, he had a problem controlling his temper and got into a lot of trouble. He did badly at school, often playing truant, and left when he was 12 or 13, before he completed Form 2, the court heard.

  Dr Connell said Lam had not formed proper relationships or friendships and got into many fights.

  He explained that some people do not develop normally, mainly because of the environment in which they grow up, but partly because of their genetic make-up. They do not mature into responsible adults, but develop certain personality features which are harmful to them and others.

  'In this case, in my opinion, Mr Lam has developed an abnormal personality. He hasn't reached normal adult maturity or responsibility,' Dr Connell said.

  He told the court he arrived at that conclusion because as a child Lam often got into trouble, he became bored easily and he enjoyed chasing cats and dogs to frighten them - it made him feel happy and powerful.

  As he developed without proper parental guidance, his troubles escalated. He became involved in drug abuse, alcohol abuse, reckless driving, frequent poor relationships with girls and was promiscuous.

  The doctor said these factors all indicated someone who was not capable of forming normal social and emotional relationships.

  Questioned by defence counsel Wong Hay-yiu about Lam's alcohol abuse, Dr Connell said this became a problem not long before the killings. He was introduced to alcohol by a girlfriend and, as was consistent with his previous behaviour of abusing drugs, he rapidly escalated from two or three beers a day to up to 12.

  He was unable to control his usage of alcohol and it affected him so that his mood and behaviour worsened.

  'His control over his actions tended to be diminished when he drank. He would become angry, moody and potentially violent,' the doctor said.

  In the run-up to the killings, Lam had suffered several blows to his self-esteem.

  'People with this sort of background and personality problems quite understandably don't feel very good about themselves,' he said.

  In this case, Lam's girlfriend had left him, he had trouble at work, believing the boss was against him, he was depressed, and he found alcohol acted as a medicine. His problem was that he carried on drinking and found himself out of control.

  Dr Connell agreed that Lam was a self-centred person who often concentrated on gratifying his own internal needs without showing concern for the well-being of others. He said this was a classic feature of someone with a personality disorder of this type.

  People with psychopathic personality disorders had problems to such a degree that they caused harm to themselves and others. 'It is a persistent, extreme condition,' the court heard.

  Dr Connell said he believed that at the time of the offences, Lam was suffering from this mental condition to such an extent that it diminished his ability to control his behaviour.

  Cross-examined by prosecutor, Arthur Luk, the doctor said Lam showed more than just traits of psychopathic behaviour. He said Lam fulfilled the strict criteria required for such a diagnosis.

  Dr Connell agreed Lam probably realised during each killing that what he was doing was wrong. However, his problem was one of lack of control, exacerbated by alcohol.

  'This was a man with a mental problem. That meant he couldn't deal with his difficulties and feelings in the way that most of us could,' Dr Connell said.

   When asked if Lam's mind was substantially impaired by his disorder, the doctor said: 'This man has a consistent history of impaired judgment . . . He was suffering from a severe psychopathic personality disorder, long-standing, and exacerbated by drinking far too much.'    The psychiatrist who interviewed Lam at Siu Lam when he was first arrested, Dr Tam Wing-hong, agreed that Lam was suffering from diminished responsibility at the time of the killings because of this psychopathic personality disorder.

   Dr Tam said he interviewed Lam's elder sister, with whom Lam was living in Kowloon after he left Tuen Mun to avoid police attention. She was the closest person to Lam, but even she said their relationship was superficial and she did not really know him. She said she could not believe Lam had committed such evil.

   Earlier yesterday, the Crown closed its case after the jury saw two video re-enactments made by Lam of the three killings and heard medical evidence about the cause of death of the victims.



Doctors declare killer a psychopath