Detailed plan led to Hong Kong model murder, court hears

The ex-husband and in-laws of a Hong Kong influencer and model crafted an elaborate plan that ended with her murder in 2023, prosecutors told the court Friday in the high-profile case.

Police discovered parts of 28-year-old Abby Choi's dismembered body at a suburban Hong Kong property in February 2023, in a case that stunned the financial hub.

Choi's ex-husband Alex Kwong, 31, his father Kwong Kau, 68, and brother Anthony Kwong, 35, have pleaded not guilty to murder charges and have been on trial since Wednesday. They face life in prison if convicted.

Prosecution lawyer Charlotte Draycott said that days before Choi was reported missing, the defendants bought equipment later used to cut up and dispose of Choi's body including a mincing machine.

The court was played CCTV footage that prosecutors said showed Choi, 28, getting into one of two vans used by the Kwongs in the afternoon on February 21, 2023. Her last online activity was at 2:44 pm.

Other footage showed Alex Kwong parking one of the vans at a different location at around 3:20 pm the same day near the same property where police recovered her remains on February 24.

The three men were seen wearing face masks and were "not upset. It's what they expected," Draycott told the court, saying that they had prepared a "cogitated plan" to kill Choi.

On February 25, Alex Kwong -- who had two children with Choi -- was arrested while planning to flee Hong Kong, a day after his father and brother were detained.

Prosecutors also showed displayed a hammer to the jury and cited a forensic report saying that the injuries on Choi's skull, caused by a blunt instrument, matched the shape of the hammer.

Prosecutors told the jury earlier this week that Choi and her ex-husband's family had financial disputes over a luxury property which she had paid HK$60 million ($7.65 million).

The trial is expected to last at least until December.