Man admits to stabbing estranged wife five times after she refused to let him see daughter

A 35-year-old woman is taken to hospital after she got stabbed five times in the abdomen by her ex-husband. Screengrab via Apple Daily video.
A 35-year-old woman is taken to hospital after she got stabbed five times in the abdomen by her ex-husband. Screengrab via Apple Daily video.

A man admitted before a judge to stabbing his ex-wife outside Hong Kong’s Family Court because she refused to let him to see his daughter for more than two years.

Chong Hay-chik, 39, used a 23-centimeter knife to stab Pang Lin, 35, five times in the abdomen outside the Family Court in Wan Chai on May 8, 2017.

He had previously denied that he tried to murder Pang, but at the High Court yesterday, he pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of wounding with intent, Ming Pao reports.

The court heard that the couple first met in 2011 and got married a year later and their daughter was born in 2013. However, the marriage broke down, the two legally separated in 2015, and Pang soon started refusing to let Chong see their daughter.

Chong’s attorney told the court room that it was around this time that Chong started drinking to numb himself.

Prosecutors told the court that Chong and Pang were scheduled to appear at Family Court on the afternoon of May 8, 2017 because of disputes over alimony and Chong’s visitation rights.

Chong’s lawyer told the court that his client had two bottles of wine that day and had arrived early at the courtroom. When he saw Pang arrive, he pulled the knife from his pocket and stabbed her in the abdomen five times before he was subdued by four security guards.

Doctors found Pang with blood coming from her arm and lower back; internal bleeding in her thorax, abdomen, and pelvis; and lacerations to her right kidney and liver.

The court also heard that she suffered a collapsed lung, intramuscular hematomas, and bone fracture and displacement. She had to undergo emergency surgery and her kidney was removed. She was discharged from hospital on May 29, 2017, Apple Daily reports.

Under caution, Chong admitted to police that he prepared the knife by wrapping it with wire and bandages so that it wouldn’t slip from his grip, and that he attacked Pang because she wouldn’t let him see their daughter.

In mitigation, the defense said that Chong, an unemployed IT support worker, genuinely regretted his actions and that he committed the offense in a moment of passion.

The defense appealed for a lenient sentence, arguing that Chong had committed the offense impulsively and under the influence of alcohol, and that he genuinely regretted his actions.

Justice Anthea Pang Po-kam adjourned sentencing for July 30, pending a psychological and psychiatric report on Chong, as well as a medical report on the victim and an impact assessment.



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