Hong Kong-UK spying row: dead suspect Matthew Trickett’s charges dropped as February trial date set for co-defendants
- Matthew Trickett, 37, had been set to appear in court but was found dead in a public park in Maidenhead, Berkshire on Sunday
- Defendants Peter Wai, 38, and Bill Yuen, 63, appear at Old Bailey in London and are told they will go on trial on February 10 next year
Trickett, 37, had also been set to appear in court on Friday but was found dead in a public park in Maidenhead, Berkshire, about a kilometre away from his correspondence address. Thames Valley Police earlier said they were treating the death as “unexplained”.
The two other defendants, Peter Wai Chi-leung, 38, and Bill Yuen Chung-biu, 63, appeared before Mr Justice Jeremy Baker at the Central Criminal Court, commonly known as the Old Bailey, in London.
Baker told them they would go on trial in Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court on February 10 next year, with the hearing taking up to five weeks.
It is understood Wai is a UK Border Force officer and director of private firm D5 Security, while Yuen is office manager of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London.
Prosecutors said the charges against Trickett had been discontinued because of his death.
Wai and Yuen did not enter a plea, speaking only to confirm their personal details.
Court staff once mispronounced Yuen’s Chinese name when calling out the defendants to answer before the proceedings started. Yuen then stood up and pronounced his name to clarify.
They were released on bail and a further preliminary hearing will take place at the Old Bailey on October 25. The defence lawyers asked for electronic tagging devices to be removed from the defendants, and the judge agreed.
Before leaving the court, Wai looked around his surroundings, including the public gallery on the second floor where members of the public and journalists were seated.
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Matthew Trickett, Briton accused of spying for Hong Kong, found dead in park
Amy Wong Hoi-ling, deputy director general of the trade office in London, and Stanley Woo Man-hong, assistant director general, were in court to watch the proceedings.
British authorities charged the three men last week with assisting a foreign intelligence service and foreign interference between December 2023 and May this year.
In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin hit out at the UK before Friday’s hearing, saying it had been “fabricating charges” in the name of national security to “arbitrarily stigmatise China”.
“[The UK] has even arbitrarily arrested and prosecuted Chinese citizens in the UK, interfering with the normal operation of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London. China expresses strong disapproval and firm objection to this,” he said.
He said the British authorities’ “false accusations” – without specifying a particular case – were political manipulation in the guise of national security and amounted to blasphemy to the spirit of the rule of law.
“China strongly urges the British side to immediately correct its wrong practices, effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens in the UK, and ensure the normal performance of its duties by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London,” he added.
Trickett, a Home Office immigration officer and an ex-Royal Marine, was also a director of a private security firm called MTR Consultancy Limited.
According to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), charges can only apply to a “living person”, while the UK’s Court of Appeal ruled in 2017 that courts should take no further action in proceedings when a defendant died during the trial.
But the CPS also said acts and declarations of a deceased suspect might be admissible as evidence against other defendants during a trial if he was a co-conspirator or involved in a joint offence.
The trio were initially accused of breaching the UK’s National Security Act by allegedly carrying out surveillance against Hong Kong activists living in the country.
Both defendants were represented by experienced legal representatives at the Friday hearing.
Yuen was represented by Sailesh Mehta, who has been practising as a barrister since 1986. Mehta has acted for Britain’s Environmental Agency in a number of water pollution cases in recent years. He was involved in a terrorism case where a British soldier was charged with disseminating state secrets to enemies, as well as a case in 2016 where the defendant was alleged to have funded and recruited terrorists, according to his profile on the website of Red Lion Chambers.
He is a founding member of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales, and was an elected member of the English Bar Council from 2010 to 2013.
Wai was represented by Justin Hugheston-Roberts, who is described to be a “seasoned jury trial advocate and formidable opponent” in his profile on 9BR Chambers. He has been a solicitor since 1986 and was called to the Bar in 2009.
His focus includes military crimes, sexual offences and disciplinary inquiries, among other areas, and he has acted for defendants in at least four kidnapping cases since 2021, according to his profile.
