A Hong Kong pianist who murdered his parents before chopping up their bodies and cooking them in a microwave has been jailed for life.
Henry Chau Hoi-Iueng, 31, was found guilty of killing his devoted mother Siu Yuet-yee, 63, and father Chau Wing-ki, 65, before salting, cooking and packing their body parts into lunchboxes ‘like barbecued pork.’
It is thought that he wanted them dead after they became reluctant to fund his lavish lifestyle.
At Hong Kong’s High Court, Chau, who wore a loose-fitting grey suit while sitting in the defendant’s dock, looked impassive as the life sentence was passed down.
Judge Michael Stuart Moore also handed down an additional nine years and four months in jail for two separate charges of preventing the lawful burials of his parents, which he admitted earlier.
He described Chau as ‘narcissistic’ and ‘preoccupied with fantasies for success’ before branding him a ‘dangerous individual.
The judge added: ‘People may wonder why you did his. The fact is there is no obvious answer is what makes you so dangerous.
‘You always blame your faults on others not yourself. Your parents became the victims of your blame.’
The court had previously heard how Chau’s parents went with him on the morning of their murder to his friend Tse Chun Kei’s home in Tai Kok Tsui in the west of Hong Kong.
Several days after they disappeared, their eldest son Chau Hoi-ying, wanted to raise the alarm but Chau said the pair were visiting mainland China.
However, he then sent a WhatsApp message to friends admitting that he had killed his parents.
They reported this to police and when officers arrived at a flat belonging to his friend Tse, they found his Chau’s parents’ heads stored in two large refrigerators.
Several plastic lunch boxes containing chopped flesh and organs were also found, along with a further three boxes containing salted body parts.
The missing body parts are believed to have been cooked and eaten.
A pathologist reassembled the skeletons, which had same parts missing. He testified that the couple were stabbed in either their chest or neck before being dismembered.
Henry Chau told investigators that he wanted to kill himself six months before the attack.
Prosecutors also believe he was angry at his father for refusing to turn the volume down on the TV while he studied and was also annoyed with his mother for forcing him to study the piano.
Police believe that the couple were murdered and dismembered in Tse’s, although he denied taking any part in the killing and was acquitted.
However, Tse was handed a one-year jail term for the unlawful burial charges but was released from custody due to the length of time he has already spent on remand.
Prosecutors claimed that Chau and Tse discussed a range of methods of disposing of the bodies – including mixing the remains with cement and throwing them away as bricks.
Other plans included cooking the remains and throwing them into the sea.
Tse said the only reason he helped Chau is because he was afraid that his friend would kill his mother.
Chau first claimed that he did not kill his parents but only helped his friend dismember the remains.
He later tried to plead guilty to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility.
