The Hello Kitty Murder in Hong Kong refers to the case of a night club hostess who was kidnapped and tortured in an apartment in Tsim Sha Tsui in 1999. She eventually died over a month later, either by drug overdose or at the hands of the abductors. She was decapitated and her head was crammed into a Hello Kitty doll, hence the name of the case.
Contents
- 1 Case
- 2 Court handling
- 3 In popular culture
- 4 References
- 5 External links
Case
No. 31 Granville Road, Tsim Sha Tsui.
A 23-year-old night club hostess by the name of Fan Man-yee (樊敏儀) was kidnapped by three men: 34-year-old Chan Man-lok (陳文樂), 27-year-old Leung Shing-cho (梁勝祖) and 21-year-old Leung Wai-lun (梁偉倫). They took her to an apartment at No. 31 Granville Road,Tsim Sha Tsui,[2] where they imprisoned her. They beat and tortured her daily over a debt dispute of HK$20,000 (US$2,560).[1][3] The apartment building in which the crime took place was demolished in September 2012.
After a month of imprisonment and torture, she was killed, dismembered, and her skull was stuffed into a giant Hello Kitty mermaid doll. They discarded most of the other body parts. Only the woman’s skull, one tooth, and some internal organs were recovered.
The murder quickly became a sensational story in the media.
Court handling
The three men were convicted of manslaughter because the remains could not identify exactly how she died. They remain incarcerated.
Justice Peter Nguyen, who sentenced the trio to life in prison, said, “Never in Hong Kong in recent years has a court heard of such cruelty, depravity, callousness, brutality, violence and viciousness.” The trio were convicted of manslaughter and unlawful imprisonment by a jury of the Court of First Instance after a six-week trial. They revealed it to be one of the most gruesome cases in the territory.
Psychiatric reports described the three, members of a secret triad gang society, as “remorseless.” The jury accepted that the men did not kill 23-year-old Fan Man-yee with intent, which would have meant a mandatory life sentence, but it was determined she died as a result of their abuse. There will be no review for parole for 20 years.
