Alleged killer drilled Austrian-Filipina lover in face, High Court told

The late Andrea Bar was a parttime model

By Vir B. Lumicao

A drill bit about 5 centimeters long was still sticking out of a wound below the right eye of an Austrian-Filipino bar waitress when a police officer arrived at a construction site in Tuen Mun two years ago, to respond to a 999 call.

This was revealed on the first day of trial at the High Court on Jan. 16 of Pakistani security guard Safdar Husnain, who is charged with murder for the death of Andrea Bayr, 25, on March 29, 2016.

“I’m sorry… water!”  Husnain allegedly told the officer who wrestled him to stop him from attacking Bayr with an electric drill at dawn that day.

Details of the killing were revealed by a police officer identified only as PC 7388 as he took the witness stand during the trial presided over by Justice Kevin Zervos.

The officer, the first prosecution witness, said he found four plastic packets of  methamphetamine hydrochloride, popularly called “ice”, weighing a total of 0.82 gram, in the green container-guardhouse where the killing took place.

When prosecutor Terence Wai asked him how many times the defendant said “sorry”, the witness said he could not remember.

The officer also could not remember the name of the defendant or identify him positively when asked whether he was the man in the dock.       

The suspect’s Pakistani friend, surnamed Khan, who called police to the construction site at the junction of Tin Hau and Hung Cheung Roads, had told investigators that Husnain and Bayr took “ice” in the defendant’s room in the guardhouse earlier that evening.

A prosecution report said the victim, a girlfriend of Husnain, had earlier arrived at the site where a bridge connecting to Tuen Mun Park was being built.

Husnain’s friend then heard a noise in the guardhouse at about 2:15am on March 29. He saw the couple fighting but called police when he failed to stop them.

The police witness said that when he arrived at the scene at 2:17 am, he found the site unlit so he used his vehicle’s lamp to light up the place. He then went to the green container and saw blood on the floor and splatters of it on the ceiling.

He said he heard noise outside coming from the bridge, so he checked and there he saw the defendant still bludgeoning Bayr with the electric drill.

The officer said he pinned the attacker to the floor then radioed for help and an ambulance. He said Bayr had multiple injuries on her head, including a wound just below her right eye where the drill bit was still protruding and blood was oozing.

 

Medics took the still unconscious Bayr to Tuen Mun Hospital where Husnain was also taken with injuries in his leg.

The officer said he arrested the defendant after doctors certified Bayr dead at 3:10am.

A second prosecution witness, Dr Lam Chi-chung, a forensic scientist of the Government Laboratory, also giving evidence on Jan 16, said he collected blood samples from the scene of the attack.

He said that based on his analysis of the samples, the victim was first attacked in the office section of the guardhouse as indicated by the blood splatters on the floor and ceiling. The attack then continued at the foot of the bridge where a pool of blood formed.

Dr. Lam said the blood pool indicated the victim lay there motionless and bleeding. He said the blood pool was consistent with the police report.

Barrister David Boyton, defense counsel, did not cross-examine the two prosecution witnesses.

The Filipina mother and teenage brother of Bayr were in the courtroom when the trial began but didn’t return after the lunch break.

The trial continues.