Warped man told wife to kill family
Controlling husband kept stockpile of weapons
A disturbed man who kept an arsenal of weapons and ordered his wife to kill members of her family has been detained indefinitely.
Hon Cheong Chu would go out armed and even made his wife Lydie go to work in her Maidstone shop – Destinys in the Royal Star Arcade – with a gun on one occasion.
Chu, 57, was convicted of soliciting murder, 12 offences of possessing expanding ammunition, two of assault causing actual bodily harm, four of possessing a prohibited firearm, making a threat to kill, possessing a disguised firearm and possessing a firearm without a certificate.
Imposing a hospital order under the Mental Health Act, Judge Philip Statman said: “I have absolutely no doubt, having heard the evidence given at trial by your wife that during the time these offences were committed she was absolutely petrified of you.”
A jury at Maidstone Crown Court heard Chu ordered his wife to kill herself after wiping out her mother, sister, her husband and their son in Hong Kong.
He also declared he would kill their own son if she failed.
Mrs Chu met Chu in Hong Kong in 1987. At first they were happy. But his attitude changed when he discovered she had been in previous relationships.
She endured 20 years of domestic abuse before she finally confided in a friend, Kirsty Gwaspari, whose stepfather was a retired police officer. Police marksmen raided the couple’s three-sto- rey home in Tarragon Road, Barming, and seized six firearms, a large amount of expanding ammunition, swords and a garrotte.
“Her husband was absolutely dominant and controlling,” said Mr O’Higgins. “He hated her and her family. He demanded absolute obedience. She lived in fear of him.
“He developed a morbid obses- sion with killing her family in Hong Kong. She kept hoping he would relent, but it was apparent he was deadly serious.”
Following conviction, two psychiatrists concluded Chu was suffering from “persistent delusional disorder” and recommended his continued detention in Priory Thornford Park Hospital at Crookham Hill, Berkshire.