Retrial of HK ex-professor convicted of 'yoga ball murders' begins

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Hong Kong’s High Court has begun a retrial of an ex-professor convicted and jailed for life over murdering his wife and daughter in 2015.

Khaw Kim-sun, a former associate professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and an anaesthesiologist from Malaysia, appeared before a seven-member jury at the High Court on Wednesday.

He was found guilty in 2018 of murdering his wife and 16-year-old daughter after a high-profile trial that became known as the “yoga ball murder” case, in which the prosecution accused him of filling an inflatable exercise ball with carbon monoxide to kill his wife and daughter.

The pair were found dead in a yellow Mini Cooper in May 2015. Autopsy results showed that they had died from inhaling a high concentration of carbon monoxide, but police could not confirm the source of the gas. An exercise ball without a plug was found by police in the boot of the car.

Khaw appealed his conviction and won at the Court of Final Appeal last November, with the five-judge penal ordering a retrial. Khaw had argued that the judge in the initial trial misled the jury into thinking that the burden was on the defendant to prove his innocence, which is not in line with court procedure.

In Hong Kong courts, the burden of proof lies with the prosecution, which must convince the court that a defendant is guilty of the alleged offence beyond reasonable doubt.

Opening the retrial on Wednesday, Deputy High Court Judge Brian Keith briefed the jury, comprising four men and three women, before the prosecution began its opening arguments.

The prosecution said that on the day of the incident, Khaw’s wife and daughter were leaving home in the Mini Cooper. Their car was found near the Sai O bus terminal in Ma On Shan, around 1.6 kilometres from their home.

A passer-by called police, who smashed the car’s windows in an attempt to save the pair. They were certified dead at a hospital, the prosecution said.

Only months later did police discover a deflated exercise ball in the car that had been pumped with carbon monoxide, the same substance found in the mother and daughter’s autopsies. Khaw, an anaesthesiologist who would have known the properties of carbon monoxide, had committed the “perfect crime,” the prosecution added.

The retrial is expected to last 30 days.

During the initial trial, which captured local and international headlines, the court heard that Khaw had an extramarital affair with a woman who tutored Chinese to the couple’s children. Khaw’s eldest daughter testified that she was aware of the affair.

Regarding the carbon monoxide allegations, Khaw had said that he filled the ball with the gas at a laboratory at his university and brought it home to kill mice in their village house.

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Hillary Leung is a journalist at Hong Kong Free Press, where she reports on local politics and social issues, and assists with editing. Since joining in late 2021, she has covered the Covid-19 pandemic, political court cases including the 47 democrats national security trial, and challenges faced by minority communities.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Hillary completed her undergraduate degree in journalism and sociology at the University of Hong Kong. She worked at TIME Magazine in 2019, where she wrote about Asia and overnight US news before turning her focus to the protests that began that summer. At Coconuts Hong Kong, she covered general news and wrote features, including about a Black Lives Matter march that drew controversy amid the local pro-democracy movement and two sisters who were born to a domestic worker and lived undocumented for 30 years in Hong Kong.