Defence question police contamination in Abby Choi case

The hearing on Abby Choi's murder case continued at the High Court.

The defence suspected police officers who entered the Lung Mei Village unit had contaminated the crime scene, and mentioned that a number of unidentified fingerprints on site could be linked with individuals who are not associated with the defendants.

This as the prosecution said there was no dispute over the DNA in the case's exhibits.

The three defendants -- Abby Choi's ex-husband Alex Kwong, his father Kwong Kau and brother Anthony Kwong, were charged with murder and preventing the lawful burial of a body.

Chan Wai-hung, the detective constable who searched the Lung Mei Village unit where the case took place on February 24, 2023, was summoned to provide his testimony.

Anthony Kwong's representative noted soon after Chan and his colleagues entered the unit, they were told to leave the premises in a bid to avoid contaminating the area.

Chan disagreed, saying he reported the case to his superiors after discovering human remains in the unit's fridge and believed he was at a murder scene.

Kwong's representative was suspicious that police officers were not wearing protective clothing when combing the premises and ultimately contaminated the site.

Chan also disagreed with the accusation, saying five officers entered the premises at the time, with four other officers combing the site emphasising the need to wear gloves when handling pieces of evidence.

This as Alex Kwong's representative raised concern over a hammer that was seized having been found with his client's DNA.

His representative said there was no human tissue or remains on the object when it was picked up by Chan, stressing there was a lack of evidence pointing to the hammer's connection with the case.

Chan disagreed, saying he did not move any pieces of evidence while searching the site.

Meanwhile, an officer from the police's Identification Bureau responsible for collecting fingerprints in the Lung Mei Village unit provided her testimony.

Both the prosecution and defence confirmed that items including the inside of the fridge, plastic bags to a chainsaw's instruction manual contained fingerprints belonging to Anthony Kwong.

The bureau also mentioned a number of fingerprints among the 111 collected at the scene could not be identified, to which Alex Kwong's representative emphasised there could be a chance they are not connected to the case.