Hong Kong man who stabbed father to death, stole $34,800 found guilty of murder

A man who stabbed his father to death and stole more than HK$200,000 (S$34,800) from him to repay loan sharks before fleeing to Taiwan faces life in prison after a Hong Kong jury convicted him of murder.

Insurance agent Lai Kan Yau, 29, had previously admitted killing 65-year-old Lai Kam Fook, but said he acted in self-defence after his father swore at him, called his wife a prostitute and attacked him.

But a High Court jury of six men and a woman rejected his claim, returning a guilty verdict of murder by six to one after nearly five hours of deliberation.

He will return before Mr Justice Joseph Yau Chi Lap next Thursday (Aug 5) for sentencing on one count of murder and one of theft, to which he pleaded guilty before the trial.

Lai had admitted a lesser count of manslaughter but denied murdering his father on or about Dec 4, 2018.

The court heard the father’s body was found in a red, white and blue nylon travel bag floating offshore near Waterfall Bay in Pok Fu Lam, two days after the killing in a flat at a public housing estate in Tuen Mun.

By the time of the discovery, the son had withdrawn or transferred a total of HK$203,000 from the victim’s HSBC account via multiple ATMs and fled to Kaohsiung, in southern Taiwan.

Upon receiving a call from a police officer, the defendant voluntarily boarded a return flight the same day and was formally arrested at Hong Kong airport at 11pm.

Lai explained in court he owed a HK$340,000 debt to loan sharks and had intended to commit suicide with a steak knife, which he eventually used to take his father’s life. The murder weapon was never recovered.

He said he went to his father’s flat to see him one last time and ask to borrow money. But his father swore at him and called his wife a prostitute, before slapping him and throwing a folded chair and clock at him, Lai said. He claimed he stabbed his father six times in the neck by accident.

But the prosecution found Lai’s account of the killing contrived, and argued the crime was premeditated as seen by the defendant’s effort to hide the killing, including disposing of the body at sea and conducting an extensive cleaning of the flat.

A forensic pathologist observed the deceased had no defensive injuries and questioned if there had been any verbal altercation immediately before the killing, given a fully conscious person would have reacted to the intense pain of a stabbing.

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A toxicologist said alcohol and drugs for treating insomnia were found in the deceased’s blood and could have impaired his consciousness.

Advancing mitigation in relation to the theft charge, defence counsel Ian Polson admitted that stealing from a dead person was “quite a serious offence” and there was little he could say for his client.

“He felt he was under great pressure at the time. He was in need of money,” the lawyer said. “I suggest the motivating factor requiring the father’s money was to pay back the loan shark.”

Murder is punishable by life imprisonment, while theft carries a maximum sentence of 10 years behind bars.

This article was first published in South China Morning Post.