Hong Kong man found guilty of murdering girlfriend by stabbing her 33 times with chef’s knife on city bus
- Admitting he was a possessive partner, engineer Ng Yan-kin, 26, followed Annie Li, 20, onto the bus, where he unleashed the frenzied attack
- The couple had been fighting over his controlling behaviour in the lead-up to the killing and Li had sought the return of videos and photos of them having sex
A Hong Kong engineer who killed his girlfriend by stabbing her 33 times on a bus three years ago has been found guilty of murder.
A High Court jury of five women and two men on Tuesday returned a unanimous verdict against Ng Yan-kin, 26, after about six hours of deliberations, following a 36-day trial before Madam Justice Audrey Campbell-Moffat.
The judge will sentence him to life in prison in a separate hearing next year, pending possible submissions for the Long-term Prison Sentences Review Board’s consideration of possible remission and commutation.
Ng admitted killing Annie Li Sin-heng, 20, with a newly bought knife on the upper deck of Citybus No 118 five minutes after it left the Island Resort bus terminus in Siu Sai Wan at about 4pm on September 16, 2017.
But he claimed to have no recollection of the frenzied knife attack and argued he was suffering at the time from major depressive disorder and paranoid personality disorder. His lawyers said the conditions would substantially impair his mental responsibility for the killing and the charge should be reduced to manslaughter by reason of diminished capacity.
The court previously heard the young lovers met online and began having sex within two weeks, recording their activities with video and photos.
But problems developed as Li reportedly found Ng “a controlling type of boyfriend”, who would grow jealous and worry she would meet other men and become unfaithful.
Such fears led to arguments about whether Li should attend orientation camps at Polytechnic University as she transferred from an associate to a bachelor’s programme.
I was not handsome, I was not rich. Yet I met such a nice, good girlfriend
Ng testified he harboured anxiety over being abandoned and had a habit of checking up on his girlfriends to the point where it affected his studies.
He recalled meeting Li in July 2016 and described her as a caring, independent and thoughtful woman. He felt like he had “won the first prize in the Mark Six” lottery.
“I was not handsome, I was not rich,” Ng said. “Yet I met such a nice, good girlfriend.”
He also noted she came from a middle-class family living at a private estate, as opposed to his lower-class family in public housing, a difference in background that often made him worry she would look down on him.
His counsel Duncan Percy had asked him: “How strong were your feelings towards her during the relationship?”
“I wanted to be with her lifelong,” Ng said.
But he said Li wanted to break up with him following repeated arguments about her joining the camp and she had demanded the return of memory cards with the records of their sexual activities.
On the day of the killing, Ng said he was planning to accompany Li to work when she texted him, saying they should not meet again. Thinking she meant to break up with him, Ng took a taxi to her estate. He said the journey was the last thing he remembered before waking up in hospital.
But security footage tracked Ng entering a shopping centre near Li’s building to buy a steel chef’s knife for HK$59.90 (US$8) from JHC, before following her onto the double-decker bus.
Security footage from inside the vehicle captured him suddenly pulling the knife out of his backpack and stabbing Li in the neck, arms and torso, then himself in the stomach, before he smashed a window and jumped from the upper deck when the bus stopped at Chai Wan Road.
Paramedics arrived to find Ng lying on the pavement and Li in a pool of blood that had stained the purple seat she was still in, her head resting on her thighs.
She was certified dead in Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital.
Forensic pathologist Dr Lai Sai-chak found 33 knife wounds on Li’s body.
Both murder and manslaughter are punishable by life in prison.
