Yoga ball murder trial: Malaysian professor’s daughter felt betrayed after discovering love affair

The eldest daughter of a professor told a Hong Kong court on Monday she felt betrayed by her father’s affair with her tutor, as he stands accused of murdering her mother and younger sister with a gas-filled yoga ball.

Dr Khaw Kim-sun, 53, an associate professor in anaesthesiology at Chinese University, is standing trial at the High Court over the death of his wife Wong Siew-fung, 47, and 16-year-old daughter Lily Khaw Li-ling, who died of carbon monoxide poisoning on May 22, 2015.

The Malaysian national has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder.

On Monday, Khaw Kim-sun’s eldest daughter, Khaw May-ling, recounted how she became the first to find out about the affair. She also described the high expectations her father placed on his children and how she remembered her caring sister.

Her testimony prompted Khaw Kim-sun, who also works at Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin, to smile one moment and shed tears the next.

“At first, I felt slightly betrayed he would do that,” said Khaw May-ling, during cross-examination by defence counsel Gerard McCoy SC.

She said the mistress, Shara Lee, first came to the house to teach her and her late younger sister Lily Chinese in 2004 and 2005. Prosecutors have also said Lee was one of Khaw Kim-sun’s students.

The daughter said she began to suspect her father and Lee were having an affair around 2012, while her mother found out in 2013 or 2014, she said.

I felt that I could understand why my father would want to look for someone else

Khaw May-ling

But, as betrayed as she felt, Khaw May-ling said she later came to understand her father’s actions, just as her mother, who, though initially upset, came to accept it about a year before her death.

“My parents hadn’t been getting on for a while. I felt that I could understand why my father would want to look for someone else,” she said, even though she still felt bad for her mother.

Khaw May-ling said her parents did all they could to remain civil for the benefit of the children, with her father taking the entire family to Australia for a skiing trip, after which they came back more relaxed.

She called Lily Khaw Li-ling “a free spirit” who, while impulsive at times, was her soul mate and a very caring person, who took a keen interest in humanities subjects at her Renaissance College in Ma On Shan.

Sitting in the dock, her father occasionally smiled as his eldest daughter recalled the fun times she used to have with her younger sibling, but he was reduced to tears when he heard about the immense pressure he placed upon them.

Prosecutors have said they believe that in a “deliberate and calculated” plot, Khaw Kim-sun ordered carbon monoxide through his university office, claiming it was for research purposes.

Instead, he filled the yoga ball with the toxic gas before unplugging it and leaving it inside his wife’s Mini Cooper. It was later discovered inside the car, deflated, alongside the bodies of Wong, and Lily Khaw Li-ling, at the Sai O Village bus stop in Ma On Shan.

After his arrest, Khaw told police officers that his teenage daughter might have committed suicide under stress, the court heard previously.

On Monday, the eldest daughter, who is now doing her medical science degree at a Malaysian university, said both she and her late sister had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, while Lily Khaw Li-ling was also dyslexic.

She said her father had not been very understanding. Every time she tried to explain it to her father, he just told them they had not tried hard enough.

“He was concerned that Lily was not trying hard enough for her studies,” she said.

Khaw Kim-sun also told police officers he brought home some carbon monoxide from his university because he wanted to eradicate the rat problem at his village home in Tai Yung Village in Sai Kung. Prosecutors have argued that there had never been a rat problem.

Khaw May-ling testified on Monday that there were rats in the house to the extent the family would put out traps in an attempt to catch them, alongside other pests such as skinks and cockroaches.

She also said Lily Khaw Li-ling was afraid of those particular animals.

The defendant’s eldest daughter continues to testify before Mrs Justice Judianna Barnes Wai-ling on Monday afternoon.

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