Alleged mastermind behind murder of Hong Kong triad leader left city and sneaked back in to create alibi, court hears

The alleged mastermind behind the 2009 murder of a triad faction leader left Hong Kong shortly before the slaying and sneaked back into the city to orchestrate the attack, in a bid to create an alibi, the High Court heard on Thursday.

Leung Kwok-chung, then a senior member of the Wo Shing Wo triad group, was said to have led a group of 11 men in the fatal attack on Lee Tai-lung, of the rival Sun Yee On gang, on the forecourt of the Kowloon Shangri-La hotel more than 14 years ago.

The court heard that the 54-year-old defendant had left for mainland China some 55 hours before the killing and returned to Hong Kong illegally by speedboat to make sure the attack was carried out smoothly.

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Leung on Thursday stood trial before a judge and jury of four men and three women at the High Court, having denied his involvement in Lee’s murder in the early hours of August 4, 2009.

Derek Lai Kim-wah, a senior assistant director of public prosecutions, said the accused had a grudge against Lee after a brawl between the two rival groups at a bar in Tsim Sha Tsui East in July 2006.

The fight left Leung, nicknamed “Tattooed Chung”, with a scar down the right side of his face and throat, the prosecutor said.

On the day of the ambush in 2009, Lee was knocked down by a Toyota Picnic seven-seater car and hacked to death by three knife-wielding men on the doorstep of the hotel.

Lai said Leung had also gone to the scene to watch the assault.

“He was there to make sure this [attack] was executed according to their plan,” the prosecutor told the jury.

According to Lam Ka-chun, a key prosecution witness who was hired to work as a lookout that morning, members of the Wo Shing Wo group had gathered in Tai Kok Tsui shortly after 12am that day to prepare for the ambush.

The witness said the senior gang members, including Leung, had issued instructions to the three enforcers to avoid Lee’s vitals when they attacked him.

Lam later assisted in the police investigation and picked Leung’s photo from among 40 images when asked to identify the primary suspect.

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Prosecutor Lai stressed a person who attacked another could be held liable for murder if he had intended to inflict serious bodily harm on his victim.

Both immigration and police records showed Leung had not officially re-entered Hong Kong since he left for the mainland via the Lok Ma Chau crossing on August 1, 2009.

However, the prosecutor said Leung’s purported alibi was a “sham” and a “fraud”, suggesting the senior triad member could have easily arranged for illegal passage to the mainland and back via speedboat.

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The prosecution intended to call on a senior police inspector to give evidence on illegal immigration, as well as an expert witness to explain the “close connection between triad societies and speedboat operators”, he added.

“The defendant was not one of the three knifemen but was the mastermind,” Lai said. “He was equally guilty of the murder as the three knifemen.”

The trial before Madam Justice Judianna Barnes and the seven-member jury is expected to last nine days.