Thursday, March 02, 2006
Johnny B Bad
Headless Annie's married lover Hong Kong lawyer and politically/socially-well connected sleazemeister John Fang didn't show to testify today and the coroner/judge was plenty pissed. Fang keeps playing the "but my mommy just died" card and hizzoner is fed up.
Read all about it below.
If lawyer John Fang is a no-show Friday at the coroner's inquest examining the cause and circumstances of the death of his former mistress Annie Pang, coroner Colin Mackintosh said he will issue a warrant for Fang's appearance.
``I am extremely disappointed that Mr Fang is not here,'' a visibly irritated Mackintosh told the court and jurors Thursday afternoon following three days of testimony by Pang's last known boyfriend, truck driver Sit Ping-hung.Fang was scheduled to testify following Sit.
``If Mr Fang is not here tomorrow I shall use my powers to compel his attendance,'' Mackintosh said. ``He must be here. I take a very dim view of the situation.''
By ``powers`` Mackintosh meant that he can issue a warrant to compel Fang to appear. Fang would conceivably face a comtempt charge if he ignored the warrant.
Fang, the brother of former chief secretary Anson Chan and son of artist Fang Zhaoling who died nearly two weeks ago, has repeatedly asked that his testimony be delayed since his mother's death. On Wednesday he sent a five page letter to Mackintosh asking for another delay until March 6. Mackintosh denied the request and asked him to be prepared to testify on Thursday and Friday.
A senior inspector of the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau said he made several unsuccesful phone calls to Fang's mobile and fixed line numbers on Thursday in order to determine whether he would appear.
``I got voice mail each time,'' said Almerick Cheuk. ``I finally reached him at home. He said he would be here tomorrow but I think I need to call him again.''
The non-criminal investigation will be in its tenth day today. It was scheduled for 15 days but Mackintosh has recently expressed concern that it may run longer than planned.
The 31-year-old former model was missing for four years until her decapitated skeletal remains were found in October 1999 in a Yau Ma Tei apartment owned by Fang. Fang and a locksmith entered the Waterloo Road apartment to close bathroom and bedroom windows that had caused water leakage into the flat below. Both claimed they never saw Pang's uncovered skeleton surrounded by maggot casings, nor her skull in a waste basket on the floor beside the bed in the 300-square-foot flat.
The following day Fang sent a former employee to the flat to clean it. He reported the remains to police after phoning Fang.
Sit's longer-than-expected testimony was primarily drawn out by solicitor Mary Jean Reimer who is representing Pang's family. Using mostly minor inconsistencies in two interviews that Sit gave police in 2000 and 2005 and during his three days on the stand, Reimer tried to bolster a theory that Sit was never Fang's live-in boyfriend and that he was taking financial advantage of a woman whom others and Sit have described as deeply in debt to loan sharks, suicidal and addicted to drugs and gambling.
Reimer on Thursday described Pang as ``quite wealthy'' and said that her apparent interest in trading futures combined with a 1994 debt of about HK$80,000 to Inland Revenue was proof of her financial success and acumen.
However friends and acquaintances of Pang have testified that she appeared to primarily depend on Fang's largesse for living expenses and shelter in flats he owned after she became his mistress at about age 18.
Headless Annie's married lover Hong Kong lawyer and politically/socially-well connected sleazemeister John Fang didn't show to testify today and the coroner/judge was plenty pissed. Fang keeps playing the "but my mommy just died" card and hizzoner is fed up.
Read all about it below.
If lawyer John Fang is a no-show Friday at the coroner's inquest examining the cause and circumstances of the death of his former mistress Annie Pang, coroner Colin Mackintosh said he will issue a warrant for Fang's appearance.
``I am extremely disappointed that Mr Fang is not here,'' a visibly irritated Mackintosh told the court and jurors Thursday afternoon following three days of testimony by Pang's last known boyfriend, truck driver Sit Ping-hung.Fang was scheduled to testify following Sit.
``If Mr Fang is not here tomorrow I shall use my powers to compel his attendance,'' Mackintosh said. ``He must be here. I take a very dim view of the situation.''
By ``powers`` Mackintosh meant that he can issue a warrant to compel Fang to appear. Fang would conceivably face a comtempt charge if he ignored the warrant.
Fang, the brother of former chief secretary Anson Chan and son of artist Fang Zhaoling who died nearly two weeks ago, has repeatedly asked that his testimony be delayed since his mother's death. On Wednesday he sent a five page letter to Mackintosh asking for another delay until March 6. Mackintosh denied the request and asked him to be prepared to testify on Thursday and Friday.
A senior inspector of the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau said he made several unsuccesful phone calls to Fang's mobile and fixed line numbers on Thursday in order to determine whether he would appear.
``I got voice mail each time,'' said Almerick Cheuk. ``I finally reached him at home. He said he would be here tomorrow but I think I need to call him again.''
The non-criminal investigation will be in its tenth day today. It was scheduled for 15 days but Mackintosh has recently expressed concern that it may run longer than planned.
The 31-year-old former model was missing for four years until her decapitated skeletal remains were found in October 1999 in a Yau Ma Tei apartment owned by Fang. Fang and a locksmith entered the Waterloo Road apartment to close bathroom and bedroom windows that had caused water leakage into the flat below. Both claimed they never saw Pang's uncovered skeleton surrounded by maggot casings, nor her skull in a waste basket on the floor beside the bed in the 300-square-foot flat.
The following day Fang sent a former employee to the flat to clean it. He reported the remains to police after phoning Fang.
Sit's longer-than-expected testimony was primarily drawn out by solicitor Mary Jean Reimer who is representing Pang's family. Using mostly minor inconsistencies in two interviews that Sit gave police in 2000 and 2005 and during his three days on the stand, Reimer tried to bolster a theory that Sit was never Fang's live-in boyfriend and that he was taking financial advantage of a woman whom others and Sit have described as deeply in debt to loan sharks, suicidal and addicted to drugs and gambling.
Reimer on Thursday described Pang as ``quite wealthy'' and said that her apparent interest in trading futures combined with a 1994 debt of about HK$80,000 to Inland Revenue was proof of her financial success and acumen.
However friends and acquaintances of Pang have testified that she appeared to primarily depend on Fang's largesse for living expenses and shelter in flats he owned after she became his mistress at about age 18.
# posted by Justin @ 3:17 AM 
