Hi °C | Lo °C A Hong Kong national was yesterday found guilty by a jury of murdering a pregnant woman in her east Belfast home.
Sui Ching Wong (43) showed no emotion when the forewoman of the jury at Belfast Crown Court returned a guilty verdict for the murder of Chinese woman Mi Yi Ho.
The lifeless body of the 28-year old, who was 18 weeks pregnant, was found in her Isoline Street home on June 8, 1998. A post-mortem concluded she had been strangled.
During a lengthy trial, the jury heard evidence that Wong travelled from Hong Kong to Belfast to visit his friend Wing Chun Yuen.
It was the Crown's case that Mr Yuen was Ms Ho's married lover and Wong travelled to Belfast to murder the woman before returning to Hong Kong.
Mr Yuen, who owned the San-Pan restaurant in Dundonald and who lived in Carryduff, stood trial for Ms Ho's murder in 2001 and was acquitted by a jury.
Wong, from Tinpany House in the Shun Tin estate area of Kowloon, admitted he was in Belfast at the time of the murder but claimed he had come over to visit Mr Yuen and to work.
He denied being in Isoline Street on the evening Ms Ho was murdered but this claim was rejected by the jury.
Following a painstaking police investigation, Wong was charged with murder and was extradited from Hong Kong.
After the jury returned the guilty verdict, Wong was told by Mr Justice Hart: "You have been convicted of the crime of murder.
"The only sentence which is open to me by law to be passed upon you is one of life imprisonment — which I do now.
"However, a further part of that sentencing will be for me to decide, when I have heard what you counsel has to say on your behalf, what is the minimum period you must spent in prison before you are suitable for release
He added: "That will not be today, that will be some other occasion."
Mr Justice Hart said he would review the case again on May 16 when a date for sentencing will be fixed.
