Sai Sha Road ‘Yoga-ball killer’ sees guilty verdict upheld

^{Khaw had allegedly been having an affair for some years with his student and children’s tutor. Photo: The True Net}

The court of appeal yesterday (7/6) rejected an application by former anaesthesia professor Khaw Kim Sun, who is currently serving life imprisonment, over the murder of his wife and second daughter in 2015.

Khaw, a 57-year-old former associate professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, was found guilty on two counts of murder in 2018 after placing an unplugged yoga ball filled with carbon monoxide in the trunk of his wife’s car parked on Sai Sha Road, Sai Kung..

Khaw’s wife Wong Siu-fing, 47, and second daughter Lily Khaw Li-ling, 16, were found dead on 22 May 2015, in a yellow Mini Cooper.

Court of Appeal Vice President Andrew Macrae, High Court’s Chief Judge Jeremy Poon Shiu-chor, and Judge Kevin Zervos yesterday rejected Khaw’s appeal.

^{The wife and daughter of a Chinese University professor were found unconscious in the parked Mini Cooper and later died. Photo: Edmond So}

Khaw’s lawyers argued in the appeal filing that the trial judge, Judianna Barnes, gave an unfair summary of evidence before deliberations. However, in a 153-page judgement, the three judges said they found the trial “thoroughly fair,” adding: “There was cogent and compelling evidence to justify [Khaw’s] convictions on both counts of murder.”

During the original trial Prosecutor Bruce said Khaw had been having an affair with a student for some time. His wife knew about the relationship, had accepted it but refused to agree to a divorce. But Khaw argued that the deaths of his wife and daughter were “an unfortunate accident” and he had intended to use the poisonous gas as a way to exterminate the rats in his Sai Kung village house.

The defence also said both Khaw’s wife and daughter could have been the ones to place the yoga ball inside the car. However, the prosecution argued that Khaw, an expert in anesthesiology, had deliberately prepared the poisonous yoga ball to kill his wife.

The remaining three children in the ill-fated family have since been in the care of Khaw’s former lover Shara Lee Wee-yee.