Suspect involved in escape attempt of slain model Abby Choi’s ex-husband says she was just a 'messenger'
A defendant who was accused of helping slain Hong Kong model Abby Choi's former husband with his failed bid to escape claimed she only relayed messages to concerned parties.
South China Morning Post reported that Pun said the WeChat account of her co-accused, yacht rental agent Lam Shun, was not working on Feb. 25, 2023, a day after Choi's remains were found, so she had to act as a point person for him and another suspect identified as Ivy. According to her, she had known the both of them since the 2010s.
In a WeChat recording played in court on Tuesday, Feb. 11, Pun was heard laying out their plan to secure boats for Alex Kwong that day.
Ivy can be heard getting Lam's contact details from Pun for the arrangement of boats for a friend who had to leave Hong Kong "as soon as possible, if not immediately" without getting intercepted by authorities.
"It will be under the guise of a boat party boarding in Hong Kong then to connect [to the next leg of the journey]. See if he knows anyone in Macau, you can just name a price," Ivy can be heard saying in another voice memo.
Lam did not participate in the voice exchanges, although she was part of the group chat on the said social media platform.
Pun noted during questioning that she did not know Kwong at the time of their conversation.
Pun and Lam previously pleaded not guilty to a joint charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice.
Kwong, his father Kwong Kau, and elder brother Anthony Kwong are facing murder charges over Choi’s death and are set to be tried at the High Court.
Aside from the murder complaints, Kwong was arrested on seven charges, “including six counts of theft arising from a fraudulent scheme in which he lured investors into buying a variety of jewelry, then persuaded them to hand the items over so he could use them to speculate in the gold market.”
He was also slapped with another count of “failing to surrender to custody” as he posted bail before the start of his trial back in November 2015.
The trio is also facing a charge of preventing the lawful burial of a body.
Kwong’s mother, Jenny Li Sui-heung, will stand trial on a count of perverting the course of justice at the District Court.
Choi was murdered—and dismembered—amid an alleged financial dispute with Kwong and his family. She was 28.
Her partial remains have been discovered in a house set up as a butchery site, complete with an electric saw and meat grinder that had been used to mince human flesh.
After conducting a DNA test, authorities were able to determine that the skull that was found in a large soup pot and the two legs hidden in a refrigerator at the flat were hers.
