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Pakistani killer of Austrian-Filipina lover seeks review of conviction

Posted on 01 June 2019 No comments

Andrea Bayr was killed by Husnain with an electric drill

By Vir B. Lumicao

A Pakistani serving a life sentence for the gruesome murder of his 25-year-old Austrian-Filipino girlfriend at a Tuen Mun construction site three years ago is seeking leave from the High Court for a judicial review of his conviction.

Safdar Husnain, 29, appeared before three Court of Appeal judges on May 31 and said the judge in last year’s trial of his case did not consider an agreement between the defense and prosecution to downgrade the charge to manslaughter.

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Trial Judge Kevin Zervos allowed Husnain to be tried for murder. After trial, the jury, voting 6-1, found him guilty of killing Bayr, a bar waitress and part-time model, at dawn on Mar 29, 2016.

A Pakistani friend of Husnain testified in court that he saw Husnain hitting the victim with an electric drill. The witness said he tried to stop Husnain but failed, so he ran outside the site and called the police.

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Husnain’s private lawyer, David Boyton, said the trial judge did not consider a letter from a psychiatrist stating that the defendant was suffering from a narcotics-induced psychosis.

Boyton told the panel composed of Justices Andrew Macrae, Ian McWalters and Derek Pang that the defense submitted the letter to the judge during the trial in mid-January last year.

Before that, the defense had already discussed with the prosecution the possibility of amending the murder charge to manslaughter after a report by another psychiatrist in the pretrial stage indicated the defendant’s mental state was affected by his drug-taking.

After hearing the submissions, Macrae said the panel would like to know why the trial judge proceeded with the murder trial, and would decide on the application after reviewing the transcript of the proceedings.

He adjourned the hearing to an unspecified date.

Husnain was a night-shift security guard in a footbridge construction site in Tuen Mun while Bayr, who had a young daughter with her Filipino former husband, was a waitress and manager of restaurants in Lan Kwai Fong and Wan Chai.

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Bayr was born in Hong Kong to a Filipina mother and Austrian father.

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Court grants bail to Pinoy charged with possessing unlicensed firearm

Posted on 31 May 2019 No comments

No photo description available.

By Vir B. Lumicao

A Filipino resident of Hong Kong who is facing a charge of possessing a unlicensed firearm was granted $5,000 bail on May 30 by a magistrate in Eastern Court.

Ernesto Lopez Jr appeared before Magistrate Veronica Heung to apply for bail eight days after being charged for the offense.

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The prosecution said Lopez was arrested and detained by the police in his rented flat in North Point earlier this month for carrying the long firearm.

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Investigators confirmed the weapon was a firearm but said some of its parts were missing, the prosecutor said.

The prosecution asked for an adjournment until Jul 11 as the police were still conducting a test on the firearm and trying to find its missing parts.

Magistrate Heung allowed Lopez to post bail in the meantime, but said he should surrender his travel document, and not leave Hong Kong.

Lopez’s wife, her young daughter and parents attended the hearing.

Afterwards, the wife said that Lopez, who worked as a furniture repairman, found the gun in their flat in North Point when they moved into it two years ago.

She said Lopez decided to keep it as a toy but made the mistake of bringing it out of their house after drinking alcohol. Someone saw him with it and called the police.

Under the Firearms and Ammunition Ordinance no one is allowed to possess any arms or ammunition without a license.

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Pinay in Aberdeen taxi crash opens eyes but still in critical state

Posted on 30 May 2019 No comments

Marilou Abunda (center) with friends.

By The SUN

The Filipina domestic worker who was hit by a taxi which ran out of control in Aberdeen has opened her eyes but remains unresponsive and is not yet out of danger, a medical staff at Queen Mary Hospital in Pokfulam said on May 30.

Marilou Abunda, 46, opened her eyes the previous night after being in a coma for more than two days, according to the staff who was keeping watch on the patient at the hospital’s intensive care unit.

“She is not yet fully conscious. She is not yet responding to our commands and cannot yet communicate,” the medic said.

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Some of Abunda’s friends and townmates from Hilongos, Leyte who were visiting saw that her eyes were slightly open and her pupils, especially the left one, were moving. She could also already move her legs and bend her knees.

But the maid’s face was still swollen, and the right side of her head had been bandaged following an operation shortly after she was admitted on May 27, to drain blood from a brain injury.

The staff said the patient may need another operation to find out which part of her brain was damaged and was causing Abunda’s inability to respond or communicate.

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Asked if her condition had improved, the staff replied, “No, she is not yet stable. She is still not out of danger.”

Her employer, Chris Lee, confirmed the news in a text message, saying the helper remains critical, and still needs a lot of care.

Abunda, who has been separated from her husband for years and is childless, has worked for Lee and his family for the past 16 years.

She had just taken her 10-year-old ward to school and was in the middle of an island waiting to cross Aberdeen Main Road at about 9am when the taxi driven by a 70-year-old local man plowed through her and other pedestrians.

The accident happened just four days after Abunda celebrated her 46^th birthday.

Police told The SUN Abunda was conscious when taken to hospital, and managed to say she had hurt her head, before apparently lapsing into a coma.

Photos from the crash scene show the steel pole with the traffic light at the pedestrian crossing had landed partly on Abunda’s body. She appeared unconscious, with her head resting atop a pool of blood.

Another woman lay unconscious beside her, while an elderly woman is on her other side, sitting up and apparently unharmed.

The police said a total of seven people were injured in the crash, including the 70-year-old taxi driver, who suffered head injuries.

Two women, including Abunda, were admitted in critical condition.

Media reports said the taxi careened out of control on Aberdeen Main Road, and plowed into a group of people standing at a pedestrian crossing, before hitting a steel railing and coming to a halt.

However, police said no arrests have been made, and their investigation is continuing.

Among the first to visit Abunda at the hospital and extend help was welfare officer Marivic Clarin from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.

Clarin helped alert Abunda’s family in the Philippines about her condition, and has been working with Consul Paul Saret to get the patient’s sister-in-law Jocelyn and niece Loriepel, to fly to Hong Kong as soon as possible to comfort her.

Consul Saret has advised the relatives to go to the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs in Manila to apply for funding for a humanitarian visit to Hong Kong after being told the employer could not shoulder their expenses.

Once their request for funding is approved, Consul Saret said their air tickets would be booked right away.

Clarin said Abunda’s friends had told her the victim sustained the most injuries because she had apparently tried to shield an elderly woman from the runaway taxi.

Abunda’s friends were especially disconsolate because just a day before the tragic accident, they had joined the victim in celebrating her birthday at their hangout in Central.

According to Elenita Rubello, Abunda’s friend and townmate from Hilongos, Leyte, the celebration was simple but fun, with the group sharing food they had prepared and taking photos with the celebrator before they parted ways in the evening.

Rubello said she and her friends only learned about the tragedy late last night, when she saw a message sent from Abunda’s phone saying: “This is Malou’s boss. Pls call me. Urgent.”

Rubello immediately returned the call and learned the sad news. Early the next morning, it was passed on to Rodelia Villar, founder of the Domestic Workers Corner online group, who immediately contacted the Consulate and The SUN to get help.

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Pinay who stole $29,000 from gym faces jail term

Posted on 28 May 2019 No comments

By Vir B. Lumicao

The money stolen was fees paid by clients of Fitness First in Tower 535 in Wanchai

A young single mother who worked at a fitness center in Wanchai faces time in jail after admitting in Eastern court on May 28 that she stole nearly $29,000 in customers’ fees six months ago.

S.M.G., 31, who worked as a clerk at the Fitness First outlet at Tower 535 on Jaffe Road, pleaded guilty to two counts of theft before Magistrate Veronica Heung.

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The counsel assigned to her by the Duty Lawyer Service pleaded for community service so his client could continue working, but the magistrate turned down the request, saying that breach of trust called for immediate custodial sentence.

The Filipina, who had been on bail, was ordered by Heung to be detained pending sentencing on Jun 17, as the court awaits a background report.

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S.M.G. admitted pocketing cash totaling $28,737.75 which she was supposed to deposit in the company’s bank account on two separate occasions in November last year.

The first batch of cash given her by the gym manager for deposit into the company’s account on Nov 6 last year totaled $11,450.27. Then, between Nov 13 and Nov 21, she was again asked to deposit $17,287.40 to the bank account.

But when the manager checked the bank statement, he was surprised to find out that no money had been deposited into the account.

The manager confronted the clerk about the missing money and she agreed to reimburse the company, but managed to pay back only $6,000.

On Apr 18 this year, she was intercepted at the Hong Kong International Airport and arrested.

In mitigation, the defense counsel said his client's family had left Hong Kong, and she was left behind to look after her daughter and pay off an $80,000 bank loan, of which she had already repaid $50,000.

She was working and earning $15,000 a month in her present job, the counsel said, requesting that the woman do community service instead. But the magistrate refused.

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