Forensic expert details suspected tools in Abby Choi case
HK01 · 2 SOURCESabout 2 hours ago3 MIN
Summary
A senior government forensic examiner told the High Court on Monday that cut marks on pelvic and spinal remains believed to be those of Abby Choi were consistent with a circular power saw. He also said a separation between parts of the pelvis could have been caused either by sawing or by impact from a hard object such as a hammer.
Key Points
- Senior Chemist Dr Tam Cheuk-ning of the Government Laboratory said he compared marks on the remains with test cuts made on oxtail bones using a power saw and a hand saw supplied by police. He said the power-saw marks matched those seen on the pelvic bone.
- Dr Tam said the pelvic cut marks showed slightly curved lines, with two lines particularly clear. He told the court hand-saw marks would usually be straighter, denser and parallel, while a circular power saw could leave wider-spaced, slightly curved lines.
- On the spine, Dr Tam said it had been completely severed and that two points appeared to have been cut by a tool. He said one cut surface showed little obvious tool marking and could still have been made by a power saw if it was held steadily, or if soft tissue movement reduced visible marks.
- Asked about the separation between the right buttock area and the opposite side of the pelvis and spine, Dr Tam said the bones could have been separated by sawing or by blows from a hard object such as a hammer. He added that a large cleaver could also split bone, but there were no distinctive marks allowing him to identify the exact tool.
- Defence counsel Oliver Davies, representing Kwong Kau, challenged whether transparent plastic boxes of the type in evidence would be used to hide a body because people could still be seen through them. Dr Tam replied that he had no experience of placing bodies in boxes and had not considered that point; under prosecution questioning, he agreed two stacked boxes would be less transparent than one.
- The three defendants are former brother-in-law Kwong Kong-kit, 35, a driver; former father-in-law Kwong Kau, 69, retired; and former husband Kwong Kong-chi, 32, unemployed. They are charged with murdering Choi on February 21, 2023, at a ground-floor village house in Lung Mei Tsuen, Ting Kok Road, Tai Po, and with preventing the lawful burial of her body between February 21 and 23, 2023.
- All three deny murder. Kwong Kong-kit and Kwong Kong-chi have admitted preventing lawful burial of a body, while Kwong Kau denies that charge. The case is being heard in English before Deputy High Court Judge Brian Keith.
Why It Matters
The forensic evidence goes directly to how prosecutors seek to reconstruct the alleged dismemberment and what tools may have been used, making the expert testimony central to the jury’s assessment of the physical evidence. The defence challenge over the plastic boxes also shows the trial is testing not only scientific findings but how those findings fit with the prosecution’s account of concealment and transport of remains.