Two Hongkongers have been sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering a man by suffocating him with tape in a village temple and burying his body under concrete outside, with a judge describing the killing as hideous “beyond words”.
High Court Judge Anthony Kwok Kai-on handed down the mandatory sentences to Chan Wah-hing, 67, and Chan Yiu-lung, 33, on Monday after they were earlier convicted of murdering a 51-year-old man over a financial dispute in September 2022 and disposing of his body near Ping Yeung Village in North district.
Kwok described the killing as “brutal, callous and premeditated”, noting that evidence showed the victim died of suffocation after tape was wrapped around his head and that he was also stabbed twice in the chest.
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“It is beyond words to imagine the hideous crime that [the defendants] committed,” he said during sentencing.
The judge said the jury’s unanimous verdict on the murder charge against both defendants showed that they were all convinced the pair had acted with intent to kill.
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During the trial, the court heard that the victim operated a gambling website from which Chan Wah-hing had won about HK$2 million (US$256,400). Chan had been pursuing the winnings and enlisted the help of the second defendant.