The suspect is taken to Waterfall Bay Park by police. - Photo: Edmond So/SCMP
HONG KONG: A British businessman was charged with murder late on Thursday after an Indonesian domestic helper was found dead at a waterfall in southern Hong Kong.
The 34-year-old British national, who holds a Hong Kong identity card, was arrested with his wife at the high-speed railway station in West Kowloon when they returned to the city on Tuesday.
The case will be mentioned at Eastern Court on Friday morning, a police spokesman said.
The police force said the man went to Waterfall Bay Park near Wah Fu Estate in Pok Fu Lam with the victim at around 11pm on Sunday before he rushed off alone in a taxi.
The 25-year-old woman, whose body was discovered at the bottom of the waterfall on Monday morning, was believed to have drowned after she was hit with a hard object.
The victim was a domestic worker who, however, was not employed by the suspect, police said.
The woman’s death was classified as murder because “the evidence did not appear to suggest a natural death”, police superintendent Sin Kwok-ming previously told reporters.
An initial post-mortem examination “detected injuries on her head and the cause of death was asphyxiation by drowning”, police added.
Police said the two suspects went to the waterfall together on Oct 27 night but after half an hour, the man left alone.
He did not contact the police and immediately left Hong Kong, which Superintendent Sin described as “unreasonable” moves.
The authorities said the male suspect, who is due in court on Nov 1, held a Hong Kong ID card but did not give his name or specify his nationality.
His wife was arrested for assisting offenders and released on bail, on the condition that she reports to a police station in November.
There are more than 350,000 migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong, with many coming from South-east Asian countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia.
The Asian Migrants Coordinating Body, an advocacy group, on Oct 30 expressed its “deepest sorrow and anger” over the case. - Agencies
