29th October 2026 – (Hong Kong) Defence lawyers in the Abby Choi murder trial today alleged that Alex Kwong Kong-chi was handled roughly when arrested, as the High Court also heard agreed facts that a hammer seized in the case carried none of the slain socialite’s DNA.
The case continued before Mr Justice Brian Keith. Sergeant Lam Chun, who as a detective constable arrested Alex at Tung Chung New Development Pier on 25th February 2023, was still in the witness box. Alex, 32, Anthony Kwong Kong-kit, 35, and Kwong Kau, 69, deny murdering Abby Choi on 21st February 2023. Anthony and Alex have admitted preventing her lawful burial; Kwong Kau denies that count.
Mr Lam said he and a colleague stopped Alex at the pier. Alex struggled, fell, and suffered a two-centimetre by two-centimetre abrasion on his right cheek. Later, in an interview room at West Kowloon Police Headquarters, Mr Lam took buccal swabs. He told the court he alone collected Alex’s DNA for this case, had not personally dealt with the other two defendants beforehand, and had not handled exhibits from the Lung Mei village flat or the two cars linked to the inquiry.
Under cross-examination by Andrew Raffell for Alex, Mr Lam accepted he made a 2023 statement and, last month, a fresh statement on the DNA collection to fill gaps. Counsel put it that he knew Alex had complained about the sampling and that was why a second statement was needed. Mr Lam denied that, saying the case officer had simply asked him to record the DNA work again.
The defence pressed him on barcodes and anti-tamper bags. His 2023 statement listed numbers for other exhibits but did not say he had stuck barcode labels on Alex’s samples or sealed them in a tamper-evident bag. Mr Lam agreed that wording was missing. He said DNA collection follows a fixed routine every time, so he had not spelled it out. Writing the barcode would have been better, he accepted, but its absence from the statement did not break the chain of custody. He denied forgetting the labels or the bag.
On the arrest itself, counsel suggested rough handling had caused Alex to struggle and get hurt. Mr Lam rejected that. Alex had been struggling, he said, so officers tried to control him. In re-examination he added that statements cannot list every step — that would make them unreadably long — and other paperwork already recorded the barcode. Without labels, exhibits officers and the Government Laboratory would not have accepted the samples.
The prosecutor read agreed facts stating that the seized hammer showed no DNA from Abby Choi. Government chemist Dr Wun Hau Ling then gave evidence on DNA profiling. She said buccal swabs delivered on 1st March 2023 had been properly stored and labelled before testing, with results passed to Chief Chemist Dr Wai Wing Kong for comparison with scene exhibits. After legal issues arose, the judge adjourned the trial until tomorrow morning.