When a Dior-clad socialite killed her lover, horrifying Hong Kong

“A former socialite convicted of killing her lover said she largely forgave him for the prolonged sexual and physical abuse she claims she suffered at his hands,” reported the South China Morning Post on January 22, 2001. “‘I don’t blame him,’ a sickly looking Maria Remedios Coady said at the Tai Lam Centre for Women, where she is serving a 10-year prison sentence. ‘I know he did not know what he was doing.’

“Coady, a former art promoter and fashion designer, was jailed in November for stabbing to death Gregoire Weil, 42, in her Wan Chai flat in December 1997.

“For more than two years, Coady, also known as Veronika, insisted that she had nothing to do with Weil’s death, at first claiming he had been killed by robbers. At her trial on a murder charge, she told the jury Weil had stabbed himself. She was convicted and jailed for life in March 1999. It was not until August last year, while appealing against the life sentence, that she finally admitted she was responsible for Weil’s death. The murder charge was quashed, but Coady was convicted of manslaughter and jailed for 10 years.”

On August 22, 2004, the Post reported that “a former Filipino socialite and art promoter deported yesterday after serving nearly seven years in jail for the manslaughter of her Swiss lover remained unrepentant on her release, vowing to clear her name. Maria Coady was escorted out of Tai Lam prison and put straight onto a Cathay Pacific flight to Manila”.

“‘I will campaign for my innocence. When the right time comes, I will travel to Geneva, to Paris to gather evidence,’ Ms Coady said yesterday. ‘I am not fighting for honour or recognition. I just want the truth,’ she said, claiming she was ‘framed by police.’

“The trial gripped Hong Kong and Ms Coady – who had rubbed shoulders with the likes of former governor Chris Patten and the Brunei royal family – appeared in court every day in new designer clothes.