On the 14th day of the murder trial, the deceased woman’s mother was cross-examined about money and a disputed property sale. She said she owed her daughter’s former husband about HK$150,000 for items he had bought for her, and had cared for her daughter’s children for seven or eight years without receiving thanks.
The mother said the family initially opposed selling a property and agreed only after she threatened legal proceedings. Defence counsel put a different account to her: that her daughter and former husband had decided to sell for the children’s sake, and that he had not opposed the sale. She rejected that account.
The defence also suggested that HK$370,370 shown in messages was money her former son-in-law had given her to repay gambling debts. She denied this, saying it was connected to proceeds from a car sale or a property sale in Hainan.
All three defendants deny murder. The former husband and his brother have admitted the separate charge of preventing lawful burial; their father denies that charge.