Professor ‘gassed wife and child with deadly yoga ball’

Anaesthetist filled gym inflatable with carbon monoxide, court hears

AN ANAESTHETIST gassed his wife and daughter to death using a yoga ball filled with carbon monoxide, a Hong Kong court has heard.

Prosecutors told the high court that Prof Khaw Kimsun left the inflatable ball in the boot of a car where the gas was allowed to leak out, killing them.

His wife, Wong Siewfung, and their 16-year-old daughter Khaw Li-ling, known as Lily, were found on a roadside in a locked yellow Mini Cooper three years ago, in a case which initially baffled police, who found the yoga ball deflated in the back of the car.

The pair were certified dead at the same facility where Prof Khaw worked. A post-mortem examination showed they had died from inhaling carbon monoxide.

Prosecutors said that Prof Khaw, a 53-year-old Malaysian national, was having an affair with a student but his wife refused him a divorce.

They accused him of plotting to murder his wife, the South China Morning Post reported, but said it was likely Prof Khaw had not intended to kill his daughter.

In a police interview, the court heard, Prof Khaw said he had urged his younger daughter to stay at home and finish her homework on the day of the deaths.

The doctor, who pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, broke down in tears yesterday as the pathologist who examined the bodies gave details about the autopsy he carried out on Lily.

Dr Foo Ka-chung, the pathologist, said there was no sign of violence on either body but he found a carbon monoxide level in Wong’s blood of 50 per cent – 10 per cent above the lethal level. It was 41 per cent in the daughter’s body. The court heard that the gas, when inhaled, results in impaired vision and ultimately death.

Dr Foo also said he found traces of antidepressants in Wong’s body, consistent with evidence that she suffered mental illness.

Prof Khaw, who formerly worked at Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin, wiped his eyes and nose with a tissue when he heard Dr Foo describe his examination of the girl, and became so distraught that Judge Judianna Barnes Wai-ling called for a break from the trial.

Andrew Bruce, prosecuting, said Prof Khaw should not be pitied for accidentally killing his daughter.

“If that person knew what was in the car was carbon monoxide and knew it was a dangerous gas likely to kill you, you can confirm this person had homicide on his mind,” he told the court.

Prof Khaw had been seen filling two yoga balls with carbon monoxide at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he was an associate professor, reports said.

He told colleagues he planned to use the gas on rabbits but later told police that he had taken it to get rid of rats at home.

Siti Maesaroh, the family’s domestic helper from Indonesia, told the court yesterday that the couple’s three other children had gone to school on the day of the deaths, but Lily was having a holiday. She said the children had a good relationship with their parents.

Ms Siti added that Prof Khaw and his wife had separate bedrooms and that she cooked their meals separately, but added she did not know anything else about their relationship.

The couple’s eldest daughter was due to testify today.