Former Chinese University professor Khaw Kim-sun listens in dock as Khaw May-ling tells of unhappy home life and immense pressure he placed on his children to succeed
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, described the high expectation 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 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.
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.
