THE widow of a murdered Co Antrim Chinese restauranteur is expected to give evidence via a live video link from Hong Kong today to a special legal hearing.
Mrs Kam-Fung Cheung, also known as Winne, will give evidence to the `Newton hearing', before trial judge Mr Justice Treacy in Belfast Crown Court.
The hearing is an investigation to establish the role played by 28-year-old Christopher David Menaul, the first of four people, including a husband and wife, to plead guilty to charges arising out of the attack on Mr Wing Fu Cheung and his wife.
Mr Cheung, also known as Nelson, who owned the Double Value restaurant on Randalstown's Main Street - was travelling home to Ballymena with his wife when they were ambushed and run off the road just after midnight on January 8, 2015.
While 65-year-old Mr Cheung died from up to 18 multiple stab wounds he sustained in the attack, his 57-year-old wife, known as Winnie, was wounded and robbed.
In November last year Menaul, originially with an address in Barra Street, Antrim, pleaded guilty to the murder of Mr Cheung and attack on Mrs Cheung.
Yesterday, prosecution QC David McDowell said the guilty plea was entered on the basis that Menaul was a secondary party to the murder and that he did not use a knife, or knew that a co-accused was armed.
Mr Martin O'Rourke QC, for the defence, said there were two main issues before the court, in particular the interpretation of the police video recorded ABE, 'achieving best evidence' interviews of Mrs Cheung. Mr O'Rourke said in addition to a prosecution transcript of the interviews, the defence also obtained their own interpreted transcript.
A five minute section of the interview videos, showing a clearly distressed and weeping Mrs Cheung speaking through an interpretor to police, was played to the court. Pictured with a bandaged hand and arm in a sling, whilst clutching paper tissues in her other hand to wipe away her tears, Mrs Cheung tried to explain what happened to her and her husband.
She said as her husband was attacked by one man continually demanding money, while she was grabbed by a second man, who was pulling at her hair, and in the struggle she was "cut" in the hand and her handbag taken.
A month after Menaul's guilty pleas, a second man, Portuguese national Virgilio Augusto Fernando Correia (37) whose address was given as HMP Maghaberry, also pleaded guilty to the murder and robbery.
Menaul and Correia have already been sentenced to life, but are yet to be told how many years they must serve in jail.
