Hong Kong man gets indefinite hospital order for fatal 2023 mall stabbings

Skip to content A Hong Kong man has been sentenced to an indefinite period at a psychiatric hospital for stabbing two women to death in Diamond Hill’s Plaza Hollywood mall three years ago. Flowers laid at Plaza Hollywood following the fatal stabbings on June 2, 2023. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. Szeto Sing-kwong, 43, appeared at the High Court on Tuesday. He was originally charged with two counts of murder for the deaths of 26-year-old Daniel Fong and 22-year-old Amber Lau, but the court accepted Szeto’s plea to two counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to abnormality of mind. The court heard that Szeto repeatedly stabbed one of the women on the third floor of the shopping mall on June 2, 2023, before turning on her companion when she tried to intervene. There was no evidence that Szeto, who had just purchased the knife nearby, knew his victims. The High Court. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. The killings provoked shock and grief citywide, with many Hongkongers laying flowers at the mall to mourn the two women. High Court Judge Esther Toh described the case as a tragedy and imposed the indefinite hospital order on the advice of psychiatric reports that diagnosed Szeto with schizophrenia and delusional disorder. In Hong Kong, manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Safeguard press freedom; keep HKFP free for all readers by supporting our team Support HKFP | Policies & Ethics | Error/typo? | Contact | Newsletter | Transparency & Annual Report | Apps Make a one-off donation. Irene Chan is a reporter at Hong Kong Free Press and has an interest in covering political and social change. She previously worked at Initium Media as chief editor for Hong Kong news and was a community organiser at the Society for Community Organisation serving the underprivileged. She has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Fudan University and a master’s degree in social work from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Irene is the recipient of two Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) awards and three honourable mentions for her investigative, feature and video reporting. She also received a Human Rights Press Award for multimedia reporting and an honourable mention for feature writing. More by Irene Chan