DNA from ex-husband found on hammer handle in Abby Choi murder trial, court hears
A government chemist testified that DNA from the hammer handle in Abby Choi's murder trial matches her former husband, Alex Kwong, with odds of one in 6.28 billion. The hammer head yielded too little DNA for analysis.
The High Court heard on Wednesday that DNA found on the handle of a hammer seized from the village house where Abby Choi Tin-fung was allegedly murdered and dismembered matches her former husband, Alex Kwong Kong-chi. The testimony came on the 30th day of Choi's murder trial.
Wai Wing-kong, chief chemist at the Government Laboratory, told the court that while each person has 26 DNA markers, only nine markers belonging to Alex Kwong were found on the round-headed hammer. He attributed the missing markers to the scant amount of DNA left on the hammer and its degradation, but stressed that the handle's sample fully matched Alex Kwong's oral swab.
Wai added that the odds of finding another person with the same DNA profile are one in 6.28 billion. He said human DNA was found on the hammer head, but it was "uninterpretable" because the sample was too small to analyse whether the DNA came from Choi.
Wai also told the court that DNA comparisons confirmed parent-child relationships between Kwong Kau and Jenny Li Sui-heung, and between Anthony Kwong Kong-kit and Alex Kwong Kong-chi.
Alex Kwong, Anthony Kwong and their father, Kwong Kau, are jointly charged with murdering Choi. All three have denied the charge of murder but have pleaded guilty to preventing the lawful burial of a body.
