Alex Kwong retrieved luxury watches and HK$1.4m cash after Abby Choi disappeared, murder trial hears
On the 29th day of the Abby Choi murder trial, the High Court heard that hours after Choi was reported missing, her former husband Alex Kwong retrieved luxury watches and HK$1.4 million in cash from a Tsim Sha Tsui dealer. Surveillance showed family members moving vehicles and discarding items as po
The High Court heard on the 29th day of the murder trial of socialite Abby Choi that her former husband, Alex Kwong Kong-chi, retrieved luxury timepieces and HK$1.4 million in cash from a Kowloon watch dealer just hours after learning that Choi had been reported missing to police.
Surveillance recordings presented by the prosecution detailed how Kwong ventured out to collect the high-value assets in Tsim Sha Tsui on 22 February 2023, while his family members scrambled to move vehicles, discard items, and evade imminent police scrutiny across Hong Kong.
Kwong, 29, his father Kwong Kau, 66, and his elder brother Anthony Kwong Kong-kit, 33, are on trial before Deputy High Court Judge Brian Keith for the murder of the 28-year-old model and heiress at a village house in Lung Mei, Tai Po. All three defendants have denied murder while pleading guilty to a joint charge of preventing the lawful burial of a body.
Security camera footage played during the testimony of Ng Tai-shing, a former exhibits officer, showed Alex Kwong leaving his residence at The Arch in West Kowloon shortly before 1pm on the day after Choi's disappearance. Kwong travelled directly to Noble Watch and Jewellery in Tsim Sha Tsui to reclaim deposited valuables and funds. Outside the shop, a watch firm employee, Chan Leung-hang, handed Kwong two separate carrier bags before Kwong quickly departed. Earlier testimony from Chan confirmed that the two bags contained high-end timepieces and HK$1.4 million in cash, which Kwong had previously deposited with the dealership. Kwong then travelled straight back to West Kowloon, with building surveillance capturing him returning to the lobby of The Arch at 1.43pm carrying the retrieved items.
The retrieval of the luxury watches came against a backdrop of escalating panic within the Kwong family after Choi's mother, Cheung Yin-fa, alerted authorities that her daughter had vanished. Earlier evidence revealed that when Cheung phoned Alex Kwong to state that she had contacted the police roughly eight hours after Choi went missing, Kwong reacted with extreme agitation and profanity over being kept in the dark. Interior surveillance from the Kwong family's flat at Kadoorie Hill in Ho Man Tin captured the tense moments immediately afterward around 12.20pm on 22 February. Kwong was seen preparing to depart while his mother, Jenny Li Sui-heung, questioned him about the exact timing of the police report. After Kwong confirmed that the notification had just occurred, his mother urgently pressed him to leave immediately, warning that law enforcement officers could arrive at their doorstep at any second and expressing her acute fear. Kwong acknowledged her distress before boarding an urban taxi that took him to The Cullinan by 12.40pm, setting the stage for his watch shop excursion later that day.
While Alex Kwong was coordinating his movements in Kowloon, his father and elder brother were tracked operating around the Tai Po crime scene. Surveillance footage from the afternoon of Choi's disappearance on 21 February showed Anthony Kwong driving a white seven-seater away from Lung Mei Village toward Tai Po Mega Mall around 4pm, while Alex Kwong left the village on foot at 3.45pm before resurfacing at a convenience store in Tsim Sha Tsui around two hours later. By 8pm, Anthony Kwong took a taxi to meet his father, and the two men returned together in another vehicle to the Lung Mei Village house around 10pm, where the car remained stationary overnight. Shortly before 6am on 22 February, Kwong Kau repositioned the vehicle so that its boot directly faced the front door of the ground-floor flat. Anthony Kwong then transferred a large bag into the rear compartment before both men departed. Around 6.06am, nearby cameras recorded an individual stepping out of the vehicle and three times throwing items into a public refuse collection bin near a village restaurant.
Earlier in the proceedings, Judge Keith addressed the jury regarding an informal inquiry that jurors had directed to the court clerk on the previous afternoon. The judge reminded the panel members to show mutual understanding and patience toward one another, emphasising that juries are composed of individuals from varied walks of life and diverse personal backgrounds. Following a morning recess, the judge also addressed a formal request from the jury seeking to inspect multi-angle surveillance recordings capturing the two vehicles entering Lung Mei Village. Judge Keith told the jurors that the prosecution had noted their request and would evaluate the technical and procedural feasibility of providing the additional footage. The trial continues before Judge Keith in English, with Senior Counsel Charlotte Draycott leading the prosecution alongside senior department prosecutors. Anthony Kwong is represented by Trevor Beel, Kwong Kau by Oliver Davies, and Alex Kwong by Andrew Raffell.