Murders grip the attention in Hong Kong, one of the world's safest cities

Hong Kong's reputation as one of the safest cities in the world is hard-earned and well deserved. Few big cities feel as safe regardless of how late or dark it is.

That goes some way to explain why murders in the city often grip the attention - even when they lack the sensational circumstances of the discovery of the bodies of two foreign nationals in Wan Chai hours after Halloween.

In August, the city was gripped by the grisly details of the murder trial of Henry Chau Hoi-leung and his friend Tse Chun-kei. The details of the case proved so extreme that the trial had to be abandoned when two jurors dropped out.

Chau, 30, and Tse, 36, allegedly killed, dismembered, salted and cooked Chau's elderly parents in March last year.

The couple's dismembered bodies were discovered in their flat in Tai Kok Tsui by police on March 15, with their heads and organs discovered inside two refrigerators.

The defendants had pleaded not guilty.