Hong Kong body-in-cement killers get 17 years each for manslaughter of Cheung Man-li
- Sentencing Keith Lau and Cheung Sin-hang, judge questions what went wrong with the city’s education or core values
- Pair said to have been under the influence of a swindler, who was already sentenced to life
A Hong Kong judge has questioned what went wrong with the city’s education or core values as he sentenced two young men to 17 years in prison for causing the chilling death of a man whose body was found encased in cement.
Mr Justice Patrick Li Hon-leung on Monday jailed Keith Lau, 24, and Cheung Sin-hang, 27, concluding what he described as a “horrible incident” with a “troubling” background, revealed in earlier testimony on how the pair came under the wing of 30-year-old swindler Tsang Cheung-yan.
The High Court heard Tsang had offered the younger men free meals and accommodation, served them cocktails and promised loans without repayment in the months before he lured his 28-year-old business partner, Cheung Man-li, also known as Ah J, into his flat on March 4, 2016.
Cheung Man-li’s body was found on March 29, embedded in a cement block placed in the living room of Tsang’s unit at DAN6 industrial building in Tsuen Wan, weeks after his attackers had fled to Taiwan.
A forensic pathologist floated four possible causes of death, three of them linked to the use of a potentially lethal, chloroform-like chemical compound known as dichloromethane.
