Despite frequent arguments, Hong Kong professor and his wife were ‘actually quite happy together’ before he killed her
- The couple’s children testify that while defendant Cheung Kie-chung was often belittled by his wife, the pair were a ‘very cute’ couple
- The children also reveal how a prank escalated into a series of arguments culminating on the night of their mother’s killing
A University of Hong Kong professor on trial for murder was a loving husband in a “very happy and sweet” relationship with his wife before he killed her two years ago, a court heard on Thursday.
Cheung Kie-chung’s two children testified on Thursday to a different side of his 30-year marriage to Tina Chan Wai-man, 53, one that bore little resemblance to the picture of a stressful union marked by arguments and criticism that had emerged over previous days of testimony.
The High Court jury also caught a glimpse of how the killing on August 17, 2018 had affected the children, as the couple’s firstborn, Nancy Cheung, 30, was visibly distressed on the stand, crying intermittently at the mention of her mother even as she testified in her father’s defence.
Her brother, Scot Cheung, 28, also revealed that his father had resigned his teaching post at HKU, and that the family had moved out of their quarters in Room 1601 of Wei Lun Hall, where the associate professor had been a residence warden.
Cheung Kie-chung has admitted to killing Chan but pleaded not guilty to murder, presenting the defence of provocation and diminished responsibility based on his depression, which was said to have substantially impaired his mental culpability for the act.
Speaking in public for the first time, Nancy, an officer with the Independent Commission Against Corruption, said she was “very close” with both parents, adding that she had “a very intimate relationship” with her mother, whom she described as extroverted, talkative, spontaneous, impulsive and very stubborn.
Like her brother, Nancy observed that her mother would initiate arguments and scold her father, using mean and insulting language – even after he fell ill and lost a lot of weight in April 2018. Her father, meanwhile, would show irritation and walk away, but not talk back.
In spite of the scolding, Nancy agreed with the suggestion from defence counsel Graham Harris SC that her parents were “actually quite happy together” when they were not in conflict, as captured in photos shown to the jury.
“They were very cute like that,” Nancy said while looking at a photo she took of her smiling parents holding each other on a night out during the last winter before the incident.
“They were always very happy and very sweet,” she added.
Addressing her brother, Harris asked: “In spite of everything, did you have the impression that your father still loved your mother?”
“Yes,” Scot replied. “That’s right.”
The court also heard the children would visit their father in prison. But Nancy agreed there was an understanding between the siblings that they would not talk about their mother or what happened to her with their father.
“For reasons we can all understand,” Harris said.
The siblings also explained some of the events leading up to August 17, with Scot admitting that he had wrapped his mother’s toilet seat with adhesive tape and squirted melted chocolate on it out of anger after she swapped his own toilet seat with a stained, second-hand one used by a tenant of one of his parents’ five properties.
Nancy, who shared the same toilet with her mother, said she then got into a fight with her on the night of August 16 because she felt it was Chan’s responsibility to clean up the mess, having brought the prank on herself. But Chan, she said, had left the toilet in its dirty condition for more than a week.
The argument led to Nancy leaving home later that night.
“That was the last time you ever saw your mum,” Harris noted.
Nancy responded with tears, but insisted on continuing with her testimony, revealing a voicemail she received afterwards from her mother, in which she complained about some orange juice Nancy had bought and asked for it to be returned for a refund. Nancy did not return home until the morning of August 18.
Meanwhile, Scot testified that he was playing video games in his bed, which was “quite close” to the adjoining wall of his parents’ bedroom, but said he had “no recollection” of hearing raised voices from next door on the night of the killing.
Both siblings said they were not worried when they did not see their mother the next day, thinking she had merely gone out on her own as she sometimes did – until Nancy found her mother’s phone in her parents’ bedroom drawer and decided to report her missing on August 20.
Cheung’s trial continues before Madam Justice Anthea Pang Po-kam on Friday.
