Death of Matthew Trickett, suspect in spy case tied to Hong Kong trade office in UK, may complicate trial: legal expert
- Professor Simon Young says Matthew Trickett, who was found dead on Sunday, might have shed light on spying accusations if he had chosen to testify at trial
- Ex-Royal Marine Trickett was one of three suspects released on bail after being charged with spying for Hong Kong
Ex-Royal Marine Trickett, 37, was one of the three suspects charged with assisting an overseas intelligence service and foreign interference between December 2023 and May this year. British authorities alleged the trio were acting on behalf of Hong Kong.
Trickett was released on bail by a court last Monday along with Bill Yuen Chung-biu, 63, the office manager of the Economic and Trade Office in London, and Peter Wai Chi-leung, 38, a director of a private security firm.
The trio were originally expected to attend a hearing at Central Criminal Court in London on Friday, 11 days since the first one took place.
“[In] that sense his death does not appear to affect the prosecution’s case against the other two. If he was alive to testify it might help to clarify the circumstances of the case from the defence perspective,” he said.
“But then again, it is not clear whether he would have testified at this trial.”
According to the British Crown Prosecution Service, a charging decision only applies to a “living person”, while the Court of Appeal ruled in 2017 that “the indictment of no further effect” should be declared when a defendant dies during criminal proceedings.
But the service also stated in the legal guidance that even though a dead person could not be charged, the acts and declarations of a deceased suspect might be admissible in evidence against other defendants during a trial if he was a co-conspirator or involved in a joint offence.
Trickett, a Home Office immigration officer, was found dead in a park in Maidenhead, Berkshire, on Sunday. Thames Valley Police said on Tuesday they were treating the death as “unexplained”.
The Post learned that Trickett was arrested earlier this month and had concealed his mobile phone in his underwear when police approached him.
He also told the officer that he ran his own security company and was tasked with conducting surveillance, the Post understood.
According to documents from Companies House, an executive agency under the UK government that maintains a business register, a “Matthew Peter Trickett” is listed as the sole director of MTR Consultancy Limited, which was incorporated in April 2021.
The documents revealed the registered address for the business was the same as Trickett’s correspondence address before it changed to a location in Maidenhead in February 2023.
The company address was about a kilometre from the public park where the ex-Royal Marine was found dead on Sunday.
The papers also listed MTR Consultancy’s business as “private security activities”. Filings showed the company’s net assets stood at £429 (HK$4,254) in April last year.
During the first hearing on May 13, the prosecution asked the court to remand Trickett in custody because he had attempted to take his own life after being arrested. District Judge Louisa Cieciora refused the request and released him on bail.
Photos widely circulated online after the death appeared to show Trickett alongside Hong Kong Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin in January when she visited London.
The Post has reached out to the Education Bureau as well as the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau to ask whether he was hired for security services.
Hong Kong authorities have previously declined to comment on the case.
Additional reporting by Lilian Cheng
