Ex-finance boss previously convicted of murdering lover to walk free next month after acquittal by H

Prison rules stipulate that any remission of sentence should not reduce an inmate’s actual term to fewer than 31 days.

Chan, now 49, was first convicted of murder in 2015 over the mysterious disappearance of nightclub hostess Chun Ka-yee, 33, who was last seen entering her residence in Kowloon Bay on October 5, 2011.

He insisted in that trial he had never killed anyone and suggested that Chun, with whom he had an intimate sexual relationship since mid-2008, managed to leave her building at Amoy Gardens without being seen.

The jury returned a unanimous verdict to convict him of murder, despite there being no body, confession or any forensic evidence that linked him to the killing, which was a first in Hong Kong.

A retrial was ordered in 2017 after Chan successfully appealed against the judge’s legal directions.

Before a new judge and jury, the defendant admitted for the first time in six years that he had killed the deceased and dumped her body in a rubbish trolley parked outside a village between Tseung Kwan O and Sai Kung.

Hong Kong’s horrific history of killing and dismemberment revisited

That account was corroborated by CCTV footage, which showed Chan clearing the Kowloon Bay flat and wheeling a heavy-looking nylon bag out of the building on October 7, 2011.

Chan said in the retrial he killed Chun by accident during a fight to end their extramarital affair, and confessed to disposing of her body in the nylon bag. He also admitted to impersonating Chun in text messages to people who were looking for her for six months after she went missing.

Hong Kong finance boss admits at trial to killing mistress

He said he had tried to conceal the killing in the first trial but felt it did not matter any more after his wife divorced him.

But that did not stop the new jury from returning a 6-1 majority verdict of murder at the end of the retrial in late 2017.

Chan won another appeal against his conviction last year after the judge in the retrial was found to have omitted a legal direction to convict the accused of manslaughter based on provocation.

The former director gave a similar account in his third trial, saying that he had suffocated Chun after the hostess threatened to harass his family and revealed his illicit business dealings to the press.

Mr Justice Albert Wong Sung-hau on Tuesday said the tragedy could have been avoided had Chan managed his relationships better.

“In my judgment, the conduct which the defendant performed on Madam Chun and caused her death involved a high degree of brutality,” he told the court.

“Judging from what the defendant described, as to what Madam Chun had said and done, the degree of provocation was not particularly high by itself – it was on the lower end of the scale.”

The judge said the trial’s outcome was understandable, particularly in light of the personal and emotional stress Chan had developed over the years leading up to the killing.

But he stressed that did not lessen the former company director’s culpability, adding that his loss of career and family had little mitigating effect in sentencing.

The court also highlighted the fact that Chan only confessed to being provoked by the deceased in his third trial, which indicated the limited extent of his remorse.

Senior Counsel Charlotte Draycott, who defended Chan in the latest trial, said her client was “very happy” the proceedings had come to an end.

“He says he’s got a new life,” the lawyer told journalists after speaking with him in the court’s holding area.

“I don’t think he wants to criticise the system, he’s brought a lot of it on himself, but on the other hand, now he’s got the proper outcome and he’s very pleased.”

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