 |
This article's content is marked as Mature The page Chan Man-lok contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. |
|
Chan Man-lok (陳文樂) is a Chinese man who was the lead perpetrator of the brutal torture and murder of 23-year old Fan Man-yee in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong in 1999. Over the course of a month, Chan and a number of accomplices beat and tortured Fan over a debt dispute. The case has become infamously known as the Hello Kitty murder due to the fact that the woman's remains were stuffed inside a Hello Kitty doll after her death.
Background
At the time of the murder, Fan Man-yee was working as a prostitute in a brothel in Kowloon, and Chan Man-lok was one of her top clients. However, Fan stole his wallet on one occasion, and in retaliation, Chan and his men Leung Shing-cho and Leung Wai-lun kidnapped her on March 17, 1999. Initially Chan's plans for Fan didn't involve killing Fan, but rather forcing her to prostitute herself for him and his accomplices until she paid him back what she'd stolen from her. However, they changed their mind for reasons unknown.
Among the methods of torture that Chan and his accomplices used on Fan included dripping hot plastic onto her bare skin, various forms of beating, forcing her to eat their feces, and pouring chili sauce into her open wounds. Chan and his accomplices were reportedly binging on meth while carrying out torture sessions.
Fan died after a month of torture. After her death, Chan cut her head off and stuffed inside a giant Hello Kitty doll. They dismembered the rest of her body, storing her muscles in a fridge and boiling her skull, allegedly cannibalizing these remains.
The murder would go unsolved for an entire year, until the girlfriend of one of Chan's accomplices (who'd participated in the torture herself) went to the police and explained what happened and where Fan's remains could be found.
Trial
The three men were convicted of manslaughter because the jury ruled the remains were not sufficient to show whether Fan was murdered or died in another way, such as a drug overdose. The teenage girlfriend of one of the men testified at the trial in exchange for immunity.
The trio were convicted of manslaughter by a jury after a six-week trial. Justice Peter Nguyen, who sentenced the trio to life in prison, stated, "Never in Hong Kong in recent years has a court heard of such cruelty, depravity, callousness, brutality, violence and viciousness."
Psychiatric reports described the three, members of a secret triad gang society, as "remorseless". The jury could not rule that the men intended to kill 23-year-old Fan Man-yee, which would have meant a mandatory life sentence, but it was determined but suggested that she die as a result of their abuse. There will be no review for parole for 20 years.
In Popular Culture
- Two Hong Kong movies, Human Pork Chop (烹屍之喪盡天良) and There is a Secret in my Soup (人頭豆腐湯), were based on the Hello Kitty murder.
- The case was also featured in the American drama Bones.