Ex-husband ‘bought mincing machine, murdered Hong Kong model wife and cooked her remains with carrots to mask the smell’

The ex-husband of a Hong Kong influencer bought a mincing machine and cooked her remains with carrots in a bid to disguise the smell after murdering her, a court heard. 

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.

Her legs were found in a refrigerator, while her skull and several ribs were discovered in a soup pot. 

Ms Choi, who boasted more than 140,000 Instagram followers, had shared photos from Paris Fashion Week just days before she was killed.

Her 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 Ms Choi was reported missing, the defendants bought equipment later used to cut up and dispose of Ms Choi’s body, including a mincing machine.

A testimony from a neighbour was read out in court, detailing how they recalled hearing the whir of an electric chainsaw on February 21, 2023.

The same neighbour claimed a foul smell later emanated from the ground-floor flat, according to local outlet The Standard.

The prosecution told the court that the whirring noise and putrid stench were tied to the defendants’ efforts to dispose of Ms Choi’s body.

Prosecutors claimed that while the remains had been boiled, the family had no intention of eating them, instead cooking them to render them unidentifiable.

Carrots and radishes were deliberately added to the concoction to mask the odour caused by the decomposition and cooking process, the court heard.

CCTV that prosecutors said showed Ms Choi getting into one of two vans used by the Kwongs in the afternoon on February 21, 2023 was played. Her last online activity was at 2.44pm.

Other footage showed Alex Kwong parking one of the vans at a different location at around 3.20pm 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’, Ms Draycott told the court, saying that they had prepared a ‘cogitated plan’ to kill Ms Choi.

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

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

Prosecutors told the jury earlier this week that Ms Choi and her ex-husband’s family had financial disputes over a luxury property for which she had paid HK $60million (£578,000).

They said they believed Ms Choi had decided to register the property under the name of her former father-in-law years ago to avoid paying higher taxes.

Ms Draycott told the court that Ms Choi’s relationship with the Kwong family began to deteriorate in 2022 after she tried to sell the luxury flat.

Prosecutors said Kwong Kau, a retired police sergeant, had become ‘extremely resentful and angry’ over the attempt to sell the flat.

They said he decided to kill Ms Choi because he wanted to keep the flat and that he and his sons decided to work together.

‘We say three of them decided they would do it together,’ said Ms Draycott, adding that each of them ‘played a part’ in Ms Choi’s death and burying her body in a suburban house.

The trial is expected to last at least until December.