The case was sent back to the Hong Kong High Court for a retrial after the Court of Final Appeal ruled that the trial judge had misdirected the jury in 2018. (EPA Images pic)
PETALING JAYA: A Malaysian doctor who used to lecture at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has been found guilty of murdering his wife and daughter in 2015.
After a retrial, a Hong Kong High Court jury unanimously convicted anaesthesiologist Dr Khaw Kim Sun of causing the deaths of Wong Siew Fing, 47, and their second child Lily Khaw, 16, using a leaky yoga ball filled with carbon monoxide.
The South China Morning Post reported that Khaw, 60, had initially been convicted on two counts of murder in 2018.
In 2023, Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal overturned his conviction and ordered a retrial in the High Court, ruling that the trial judge had misdirected the jury in 2018.
Khaw, whose new trial began last November, decided to represent himself. He had fired his lawyers not long after the retrial began.
He had taken the witness stand, where he told the seven-member jury that he had bought the carbon monoxide for a lab experiment.
On May 22, 2015, Wong and Lily were found unconscious in their locked Mini Cooper which had pulled over on Sai Sha Road. They died later in hospital.
Based on the post-mortem report, they were found to have died due to carbon monoxide inhalation. A yoga ball filled with the lethal gas and placed in the car’s boot was identified as the source of the poisoning.
According to the news report, days prior to that, Khaw had ordered his assistants to acquire the gas. He then filled two yoga balls with it, apparently for lab test purposes, but later took them home.
He said he had planned to use the gas for pest control.
Khaw said he did not place the yoga ball in the vehicle, suggesting that the death of his wife and daughter was accidental and not intentional.
During the trial, the report said, the issue of Khaw and Wong’s troubled marriage as well as an extramarital affair he allegedly had with a student were raised.
Khaw was an associate professor at CUHK’s department of anaesthesia and intensive care and also worked as a senior medical officer at Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin.
He has three other children, two daughters and a son. At the time of his wife’s death, their eldest daughter, 22, was studying medicine in Malaysia, while their third daughter, 15, and son, 14, were both studying in Hong Kong schools.
