When a Hong Kong man accused of throwing the body of his prostitute partner down a well after murdering her was acquitted
- 60 years ago a prostitute’s body was found in a village well in Kowloon, Hong Kong. A hawker claimed to have seen a man drop what looked like a corpse there
- The woman’s partner was charged with her murder, but cleared by a jury who had heard he last saw his girlfriend after an argument about her being a prostitute
“A hawker told of seeing a man throw a bundle into a well about 4 a.m. on October 25 last year when committal proceedings against Wong See-hoi, 43, of 5 Tin Hau Temple Street, Kowloon City, on a charge of murder, continued before Mr W.T. Charles at Kowloon yesterday,” reported the South China Morning Post on January 22, 1954.
“It was alleged that [the] accused murdered a woman named Chin Ah-choi, alias Chan Tak-yee, who was found dead in a well in Pui Man Village.
“Lam Bing-wing, a hawker living in Pui Man Village, said that [on the morning of October 25 around 4am] he arose and went outside the front door. He saw a man carrying something which looked like a person on his back about 20 to 30 paces away from where he was standing.
“This man walked to the well in front of where the witness was standing and shook the thing on his back into the well. Witness heard a splash of water and saw the man walk away. He then went back to sleep.”
On February 27, 1954, the Post reported that “a jury of four men and three women yesterday acquitted [Wong] of a charge of murdering his mistress, a prostitute named Chin Ah-choi. The crown had alleged that he partially strangled her in their cubicle.
“The accused, in evidence two days ago, denied the Crown case, maintaining that he and Chin had had words because he attempted to dissuade her from carrying on with her profession, and that afterwards she had left their cubicle [and his lawyer told the jury that the witness] was not sure if he saw anything or he imagined it.”
