Slain model Abby Choi's ex-husband told to flee Hong Kong by boat while pretending to party at sea
The ex-husband of slain model Abby Choi was told to flee Hong Kong by pretending to party in the middle of the sea before another boat picked him up, according to prosecutors.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Monday, Feb. 10 that Alex Kwong allegedly had a group chat with defendants Irene Pun and Lam Shun, as well as a woman identified only as Ivy. Ivy isn't a defendant but was accused of conspiring with Pun and Lam to help Kwong escape.
Pun and Lam previously pleaded not guilty to a joint charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice.
Pun and Lam, a yacht rental agent at the time, have been accused of helping Kwong in an unsuccessful escape attempt on Feb. 25, 2023, the day after Choi’s dismembered remains were discovered in a rental unit in Tai Po district.
In court, a voice message sent by Ivy's account was played: “One friend replied saying the safest way is that you book a junk party to go somewhere in the middle [of the sea], then I'll ask some boat company in Macau to pick you up."
In a video clip shown in court, a police officer was playing a voice recording from Ivy's account as they searched Kwong's phone following his arrest on the day of his alleged escape attempt.
In the video, a woman's voice can be heard telling Kwong that she's trying to arrange the boats within a day.
“I’m really worried about you and feeling anxious. Can you discuss it with me properly?” she can be heard saying.
A second video documented the group chat, with another female's voice mentioning Pun and Lam. It wasn't immediately clear who the speaker was.
“Shun, Irene, my friend asked if [he] can depart immediately. Where can he find you?” she can be heard saying.
A police officer testified that he made the recordings while searching Kwong's phone under a court warrant.
During interrogation, Lam had told a police officer after his arrest in March 2023 that he had not ended up renting a yacht to Kwong.
“It has nothing to do with me. It’s my friend Irene Pun who referred this business [opportunity] to me. I didn’t know what was happening. In the end, I didn’t end up renting the yacht to that person,” the SCMP quoted Lam as saying.
Another police officer who arrested Pun during the same period told the court that the suspect had said, “Ivy said Alex had to flee to Macau, so I helped him find Lam Shun."
The defense called for Pun's statement to be discounted as evidence, accusing the police of not giving administering caution, or a verbal formal warning to someone admitting to an offense. It also claimed the police subjected him to abusive language during interrogation.
The officer said she cautioned Pun during the arrest.
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 charges, 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.
