Ex-Hong Kong professor gets 7 years after murder conviction reduced to manslaughter
Cheung Kie-chung handed sentence after court accepts his depression was so severe it reduced his criminal culpability
A former university professor whose conviction for murdering his wife was overturned has been sentenced to seven years and four months in prison for the lesser offence of manslaughter, after a Hong Kong court accepted that his depression was so severe that it reduced his criminal culpability.
The 61-year-old defendant, who has been detained for seven years and two months, is believed to be eligible for release soon, subject to the prison service’s discretion.
Dressed in formal attire, the former professor was seen smiling and waving to dozens of relatives and friends in the court’s public gallery before and after the hour-long session.
Cheung had admitted to strangling his 53-year-old wife at their residence at the Wei Lun Hall of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), where he served as warden, on August 17 that year.
He also confessed to covering up Tina Chan Wai-man’s death by lying to his family and the authorities, making a false missing person report and concealing the body in a handmade wooden box until his arrest 11 days later.