Details of the case
1999 The Hello Kitty case in Hong Kong was a sensational murder case. In the case, Fan Minyi, a 23-year-old female deceased, was imprisoned by many people in a residential unit in Granville Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. She was forced to drink urine and eat feces, beaten and burned. After her death, she was dismembered and cooked, and her head was stuffed into a Hello Kitty doll.
When Chen (33 years old at the time of the crime), Liang Shengzu (26 years old) and Liang Weilun (19 years old) appeared in court, one of them still burst into laughter after hearing the prosecution's account of the abuse and beating of the female victim. Hong Kong judge Ruan Yundao described the case on February 6, 2000: "The defendant's madness, cruelty, ruthlessness, depravity, violence and malice are not acts that human beings can do to human beings."
In 2003, this case was selected by Hong Kong as the fourth most sensational case in history, second only to 1982 rainy night butcher case, 1974 cardboard box case in Happy Valley and 1992-93 Tuen Mun satyr case.
The facts of a legal case
In this cruel case, the victim Fan Minyi is a nightclub dancer. 1997, stealing thousands of Hong Kong dollars and other property from the first defendant Chen in order to raise grandma's medical expenses. The first defendant Chen Sui ordered the second defendant Liang Shengzu and the third defendant Liang Weilun to collect debts from the female victim. In order to pay off the debt, the female victim continued to receive customers after pregnancy, and the three defendants continued to increase their debts. The victim was unable to pay back, which angered three people. 1999 March 17, Liang shengzu and Liang weilun took the victim away from a unit in Fuyao building, Li Yao village, Kwai Chung, and detained him in a unit on the third floor of No.31Granville Road, Tsim Sha Tsui.
Back at work, Liang Weilun asked the victim why he didn't pay back the money and why he didn't call back. He even kicked the victim more than 50 times. The three defendants boarded the glass window of the unit, poured oil on the victim's mouth, coated the wound with Chili oil, and forced her to swallow feces and drink urine. Then, the defendant dripped a melted plastic straw on her leg and ordered the victim to laugh. The victim began to lose his mind and provoked scars from time to time, so the defendant tied the victim's hands tightly with wires for several hours and then beat her hands with iron bars.
A few weeks later, the female victim finally couldn't support it. The defendant once burned her feet with a lighter and asked her to move. The victim was later accused of taking methamphetamine directly through his mouth and tossing and turning painfully on the floor. Estimated to have died in mid-April, 1999. When he died, his face was swollen, his teeth were bleeding, his whole body was covered with blisters and his wound was pus.
Hide the body
When the defendant found Fan Minyi dead, they decided to dismember the dead one by one. First, they moved the body to the bathtub to bleed, sawed off the bones, filled the intestines of the deceased with plastic bags, cooked them in hot water in the bathroom, and exposed objects like meat and teeth in the drain.
Liang Shengzu was in charge at that time? Abdominal bleeding? After seeing the internal organs leaking from his stomach, he stood up and vomited. Liang Weilun was sick because his body smell was too bad. Finally, the first defendant, Chen, was responsible for dismembering the body, and put the dismembered part in several plastic bags and discarded it in the garbage station.
Chen was also in the room, cooking the dead man's head with a water stove. In desperation, they poured their internal organs into the house, threw them into the ceiling of the building, cut open a mermaid-shaped Hello Kitty doll, took out some cotton, stuffed the cooked skull of the deceased and sewed it up.
At the trial of the case, the first defendant, Chen, was accused of taking out the head of the female deceased from the pot. As he pulled out his partially dissolved hair, he said, "Don't be so depressed, I'll help you dress up as a beautiful girl! Be good, don't move, I'll dress you! Afterwards, Chen also ordered the other defendants to feed the cooked meat to the dog, but it was not known whether this instruction was implemented, and everyone then dispersed.
During the period of hiding the corpse, a male resident surnamed Huang, who lived upstairs, once saw a figure on the hot air slot in the building. He was curious and photographed the scene with a camera, but the relevant lens was later washed away. Since then, the unit has been vacant, but nearby neighbors have repeatedly smelled the strong stench coming from the unit and called the police for help. However, after the police arrived, they thought it was garbage odor and did not pursue it in depth.
expose
Two months after the murder, A Fang, a 0/3-year-old girl from Matouwei Women's Hospital in Kowloon, the girlfriend of the second defendant Liang Shengzu, told the social worker that she had the same nightmare. In her dream, someone asked her for her head back. When she confided in the social worker, she told the whole story of the murder, and the social worker called the police on May 24th. 1999.
A Fang is an important tainted witness in this case. She is a problem girl herself. 1999 During the Lunar New Year, Chen invited her and another defendant to live in the crime unit. Fang, stay around and have a fixed residence. In the incident, A Fang said that the defendant patted the victim's mouth with urine and asked A Fang to defecate on the shoe box, forcing the victim to eat it all.
1On May 26th, 999, a team of police officers from Yau Tsim District, Kowloon arrived at the scene with Fang. One side suspected that she was afraid to go upstairs. She only pointed out downstairs that police officers wore masks and wrapped their feet in plastic bags to prevent zombies from biting. As soon as the door of the unit was opened, a smell of corpses came to the nose; After turning on the light, Hello Kitty doll is not far away, leaning against the wall in the corridor. The detective gently poked the head collected in the doll with an iron branch and felt something hard inside. Because the head of the deceased was not completely cooked, the doll still oozed foul blood. Two stainless steel pots and pottery pots were also found in the unit, which are believed to have been boiled over the head. There are zombies around the two pots, and there are even stinking dregs in the pot.
After the forensic doctor arrived at the scene, a female head was found in Hello Kitty. The cotton of the doll is covered with necrophilia, and the skull has been cooked. Because the skin and hair tissue have been destroyed, the DNA test cannot be carried out. Detectives finally seized a number of important exhibits at the scene, including a doorless refrigerator, a hammer and an earthenware pot suspected of being used for cooking corpses.
The police immediately chased the defendant, hoping to arrest the suspect before the reporter reported. 1999 On May 27th, the police received a tip and sent four detectives to Shek Lei Estate, Kwai Chung. A unit on the 0/7th floor of Xinning Building/KLOC-rushed into the unit immediately. At that time, the first defendant Chen and his wife Po Hou were cooking; The next day, the second defendant, Liang Shengzu, surrendered himself voluntarily, and the third defendant, Liang Weilun, learned about it in the newspaper and fled to Guangxi.
Knowing that Liang had left the country, the police handed over the information to Interpol for assistance. Until February 14, 2008, Chinese mainland Public Security Bureau happened to meet Liang Weilun while performing other tasks. He was detained by the public security bureau because he failed to show his identity documents. Later, he was informed that he was wanted in Hong Kong and was handed over to Hong Kong for trial.
question
On June 9, 2000, 10, the case was heard in the Hong Kong High Court, and the next day it became the headlines of many newspapers in Hong Kong. The three defendants were charged with murder, illegal imprisonment and preventing the legal burial of the body. At the beginning of the investigation, the police suffered from insufficient evidence to prove that the deceased was Fan Minyi. However, since the defendants have admitted the charges of illegal disposal of the body and the confession of tainted witness A Fang, they are charged with murder.
All three defendants admitted to imprisoning or preventing the body from being legally buried, but all denied the crime of homicide and shirked their responsibilities when defending themselves. For example, the second and third defendants claimed that everything was directed by the first defendant Chen. Later testimony claimed that Chen was a member of the underworld and the Victory Club.
On the first day of the trial, the deceased's boyfriend Wu Zhiyuan, her aunt, the couple on the second floor downstairs at the murder scene, and a guest upstairs all testified in court. Wu Zhiyuan said that after1March 1999 13, the deceased never appeared again. My aunt said that two people came to see the victim on the day of the murder. In addition, the residents upstairs and downstairs also heard the cries of women from the unit.
During the trial, police officers often have to bring Hello Kitty dolls, an important evidence in the case, to the court, and also bring the skull of the female deceased, the refrigerator where the body is hidden, and the clay pot where the body is boiled, so that the court can smell the body. When one of the defendants confessed how to jump off the chair and press the victim with his knee, the other defendant actually laughed in court.
During the trial, strange things happened outside the court. When the defense lawyer pointed out that the defendant only illegally disposed of the body, there was no need to say too much. The lights in the court flashed, which surprised everyone in the court. Liang Shengzu was taken back to the detention center at night. Late at night, he said to the guard, "Did I hit a ghost?" (I met a ghost) ",he pointed out that all the women he saw in court were the faces of the female deceased Fan Minyi.
sentence
Entering the month of 2000 1 1, the trial came to an end. Judge Ruan Yundao pointed out that the prosecution witnesses all pointed out that the first defendant Chen was a "big-eared usurer" and a triad boss (leader) involved in drug trafficking. However, regardless of whether these criminal records are true or not, the dismemberment case has nothing to do with the above background. The jury should only concentrate on judging whether the three defendants, Chen, Liang Shengzu and Liang Weilun, have beaten, abused or dismembered Fan Minyi.
Three barristers of the defense pointed out that the evidence of the girl who was the witness of the prosecution's Amnesty was weak, and she did not see Fan's death with her own eyes. Maybe the three defendants killed Fan or something. Ruan Yundao said that an Amnesty witness must tell the truth, and the credibility of her evidence should not be discounted because of her young age.
On February 6, 2000, 65438+, the jury ruled that three defendants were not guilty of murder and found guilty of manslaughter by a majority of 6 to 0. Judge Ruan Yundao decided to sentence three people to life imprisonment with the harshest sentence.
Ruan Yundao pointed out that they had to serve at least 20 years before they could apply for review and commutation, and severely criticized the defendant for seriously endangering society, describing that "in recent years, I have never heard of such a cruel, abnormal, degenerate, violent, insensitive and brutal case, and even animals would not treat others like this."
He pointed out that the three criteria for considering life imprisonment are:
Whether the seriousness of the crime requires a longer sentence;
Depending on the defendant's personality and background, whether it will be committed again in the future;
Will recidivism bring serious consequences to the public, especially anti-vice cases and violent crimes?
The judge said that although the lawyers representing the three defendants argued that the above conditions were not met, the judge believed that the three defendants were psychopathic and unstable, and the people they came into contact with might be dangerous and qualified for life imprisonment. The court must protect the public. Three people were sentenced to three years in prison for admitting the crime of preventing the body from being legally buried. Chen and Liang Weilun were convicted of illegal detention and sentenced to four years in prison. Liang Shengzu pleaded not guilty and was sentenced to six years in prison. The latter two charges were executed simultaneously with the crime of manslaughter.
After hearing the verdict, the three defendants had different expressions. The first defendant was calm, the second defendant's eyes were red and the third defendant sighed deeply. Liang Weilun's brother heard that he smashed the stadium glass hard.
appeal
After the three defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment, they all appealed, but the applications of Chen and Liang Weilun were rejected, and only Liang Shengzu was allowed to appeal. The judge of the Court of Appeal pointed out in the judgment that Liang Shengzu did not come to the crime unit the day before the death of the deceased, and when guiding the jury, the trial judge asked the jurors to consider whether Liang Shengzu and the other two defendants "conspired" to kill the victim, but did not guide them to consider whether Liang's "departure" was enough to end the "conspiracy" relationship with the other two. The court of appeal held that there were important errors in the original trial procedure, which made the conviction unsafe, so it overturned the original judgment.
At the beginning of the appeal, Liang Shengzu denied manslaughter, but at the retrial, he changed his mind and admitted manslaughter. The defense lawyer pointed out that Liang's role is different from that of the other two defendants. When he witnessed the victim crying in pain, he encouraged the victim to pay her debts as soon as possible and let her be released as soon as possible; On the same day, Liang personally surrendered himself to the police station; Moreover, he is also determined to turn over a new leaf, attend Christian gatherings in prison and be influenced by the church; At the same time, since the appeal was successful last year and the case was sent back for retrial, he has been troubled and finally decided to plead guilty. The lawyer also said that Liang has served his sentence for five years so far, hoping that the judge can consider the integrity of sentencing and give him a lighter sentence.
In March 2004, the high judge of the Court of Appeal decided to consider an appropriate starting point for sentencing because of the seriousness of the case, and later sentenced Liang Shengzu 18. However, in the original trial, Liang admitted to illegal detention and prevented the body from being legally buried, and was sentenced to 9 years in prison. As there is no appeal against this charge, the conviction will still be upheld.
Human remains (of the deceased)
The skull of the deceased Fan Minyi is the only evidence of this case. After the initial trial, it was rarely kept by forensic doctors in the public mortuary in Hung Hom. It was not until the prisoner's appeal procedure was completed that the family of the deceased was informed that he had taken back the coffin in March 2004 and was cremated on March 26. The coffin is located in Yaohui Hall of Yuanxuan College in Tsuen Wan. The female deceased also had a son, born in 1998.