Alleged mastermind behind murder of Hong Kong triad leader left city and sneaked back in to create alibi, court hears
- Prosecution says Leung Kwok-chung, a senior member of Wo Shing Wo triad group at the time, coordinated fatal ambush of Sun Yee On rival on August 4, 2009
- ‘He was there to make sure this [attack] was executed according to their plan,’ prosecutor tells jury as he explains suspect’s decision to leave city and illegally return
The alleged mastermind of the murder of a triad faction leader in 2009 left Hong Kong just before the killing and sneaked back into the city to orchestrate the attack in a bid to create an alibi, the High Court heard on Thursday.
Leung Kwok-chung, then a senior member of the Wo Shing Wo triad group, was said to have led a group of 11 men in the fatal attack on Lee Tai-lung, of the rival Sun Yee On gang, on the forecourt of the Kowloon Shangri-La hotel.
The court heard that the 54-year-old defendant had left for mainland China about 55 hours before the killing and returned to Hong Kong illegally by speedboat to make sure the attack was carried out smoothly.
Leung on Thursday stood trial before a judge and jury of four men and three women at the High Court.
He has pleaded not guilty to involvement in Lee’s murder, which happened in the early hours of August 4, 2009.
Derek Lai Kim-wah, a senior assistant director of public prosecutions, said the defendant had held a grudge against Lee after a brawl between the two rival groups at a bar in eastern Tsim Sha Tsui in July 2006.
The fight left Leung, nicknamed “Tattooed Chung”, with a scar down the right side of his face and throat, the prosecutor said.
Lee was knocked down by a Toyota Picnic seven-seater car on the day of the ambush and hacked to death by three knife-wielding men on the doorsteps of the hotel.
Lai alleged Leung had also gone to the scene to watch the ambush.
“He was there to make sure this [attack] was executed according to their plan,” he told the jury.
Lam Ka-chun, a key prosecution witness who was hired to work as a lookout that morning, told the court that members of the Wo Shing Wo group had gathered in Tai Kok Tsui just after midnight to prepare for the ambush.
The witness said senior gang members, including Leung, had issued instructions to the three enforcers to avoid Lee’s vitals when they attacked him. Lai stressed that someone who attacked another could be held liable for murder if he had intended to inflict serious bodily harm on his victim.
Lam later assisted in the police investigation and picked Leung’s photo from among 40 images after he was asked to identify the primary suspect.
Immigration and police records showed Leung had not officially re-entered Hong Kong since he left for the mainland using the Lok Ma Chau crossing on August 1, 2009.
But Lai said Leung’s alibi was a “sham” and a “fraud” and suggested the senior triad member could have easily arranged for illegal passage to the mainland and back by speedboat.
He added the prosecution intended to call on a senior police inspector to give evidence about illegal immigration, as well as an expert witness to explain the “close connection between triad societies and speedboat operators”.
“The defendant was not one of the three knifemen, but was the mastermind,” Lai said. “He was equally guilty of the murder as the three knifemen.”
The trial, before Madam Justice Judianna Barnes and the seven-member jury, is expected to last nine days.
