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Crime in Hong Kong
Hong KongLaw and Crime

Hong Kong construction bosses charged with manslaughter after 2 workers died given bail

  • Magistrate rules Shum Yuk-kuen and Yip Lai-pan have been on remand ‘for quite a while’ and that trial start was ‘a long way’ down the road

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Firefighters at the Lyric Theatre construction site in West Kowloon after two workers were found dead in a gas-filled underground chamber. Photo: Yik Yeung-man
Fiona Chow
Two Hong Kong construction chiefs charged with manslaughter over the deaths of two workers caught in an underground chamber filled with toxic gas have been released on bail after almost nine months on remand.

Shum Yuk-kuen, 62, a director of Shum Development, a subcontractor at the construction site, and Yip Lai-pan, 40, the project manager for main contractor Raft (E&M) Engineering, were granted bail on Wednesday after they appeared at Kowloon City Court for a fifth hearing.

The pair are charged with “unlawfully killing” Lau Ho-cheong, 63, and Kwok For-kee, 61, who were working in an underground chamber at the Lyric Theatre Complex at 1 Austin Road West in the Kowloon West Cultural District between September 23 and 24 last year.

The bodies of the victims were discovered after they had been trapped in the hydrogen sulphide-filled underground tube for more than 12 hours.

Railway operator the MTR Corporation said at the time that the two men were repairing seawater cooling pipes linked to the air-conditioning system at the nearby Elements shopping centre, which it developed and manages.

The prosecution told the court that a new expert report was submitted to the Department of Justice after the last adjournment which outlined the concentration of hydrogen sulphide – known as “sewer gas” and which has a characteristic smell of rotten eggs – needed to kill.

The prosecution added that a separate report had found the times of death of the two workers were hours apart.

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