People would do anything to earn a living ...
Wednesday, February 21, 2001
Worker shook hands with dead, court told
CHRIS WONG
A crematorium worker accused of stealing from the dead shook the hands of corpses before taking off their watches and rings, a court heard yesterday.
The practice was revealed by a colleague who also accused fellow crematorium staff of trying to pilfer gold from the coffin of a dead triad kingpin.
Li Pui-yui, who has worked at the Urban Services Department's Cape Collinson Crematorium since 1994, told the District Court he saw six colleagues steal property from coffins on an almost daily basis.
Mr Li said colleague Wong Chi-sum, 37, used to shake corpses' hands before stealing their jewellery. It was not made clear in court whether the handshakes were offered out of respect or to placate the spiritual world.
Mr Li said Wong once told him he gave a watch stolen from a coffin as a gift to his brother-in-law, who told Wong it was good quality.
Mr Li said six of his colleagues stole property - including wigs, Chinese musical instruments, clothing, watches and jewellery - from the dead between 1991 and 1999.
He said his supervisor, senior foreman Lau Tai-ho, 49, knew what was going on but turned a blind eye. Lau was said to have accepted advantages from one of the workers, the court heard.
Mr Li recalled how on one occasion, his colleagues learned from a newspaper that the corpse of Wong Pui, a senior triad, would be delivered to Cape Collinson for cremation. The report claimed gold weighing several taels would be buried with Wong.
But after Wong's corpse was delivered for cremation, Mr Li said he entered the room and heard Lau mumble "There was nothing". Mr Li said Wong Chi-sum then picked up some clothes from the coffin and said they fitted. Mr Li told Wong: "If you wear these clothes, other people will surely identify them." Wong then put them back in the coffin.
The matter came to light after Mr Li reported the alleged incident to a Chinese-language newspaper in October 1999.
He said that in 1996, he complained to a personnel officer that workers were involved in theft.
Lau Tat-ho denies two counts of accepting an advantage while five other workers - Siu Yat-heung, 50, Wong Chi-sum, 37, Lee Kim-wah, 46, Ko Yee-chiu, 52, and Yan Kwok-yin, 38, together with former worker Lam Chi-keung, 65 - deny theft and conspiracy to steal.
The trial continues before Judge Derek Pang Wai-cheong.
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