A man from mainland China was sentenced to life imprisonment today for killing his girlfriend and their two children in an apparent row over Hong Kong residency.
Mainland-born Hong Kong resident Zhang Guilin, 33, and the two children were killed by 39-year-old Zhang Wenji (yep, same name) because she refused to marry him so he could get a Hong Kong residency permit.
Hong Kong’s High Court heard that after meeting Wenji in 2003, Guilin moved to Hong Kong three years later to care for an elderly man.
She eventually married said elderly man and obtained Hong Kong residency.
When Guilin’s husband died, however, Wenji began to pressure her to marry him so he too could obtain Hong Kong residency. Guilin refused.
When Wenji was visiting Hong Kong on July 25, 2013, neighbours of Guilin’s Shau Kei Wan home were awakened a “a ‘bang’, which sounded like an object being beaten with hands,” reports the SCMP.
The bloodied bodies of Guilin, the couple’s seven-year-old son Zhang Lun and their eight-year-old daughter Zhang Dan were found by firemen when a gas leak was later reported.
