Strangled woman pregnant with son

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/7361658.stm

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A 28-year-old Chinese woman found murdered in her east Belfast home in June 1998, was 18 weeks pregnant with a son, Belfast Crown Court has been told.

State Pathologist Professor Jack Craine said Mi Yi Ho had died as a result of ligature strangulation, not manual strangulation.

He said the ligature could possibly have been a scarf.

Hong Kong man Siu Ching Wong, 43, with an address at Tinphany House, shun Tin estate, Kowloon, denies the murder.

The prosecution alleges Mr Wong, who was extradited from Hong Kong last year, flew to Belfast and allegedly murdered Ms Ho, before flying back to the far east within hours.

Professor Craine told prosecution QC Gordon Kerr that Ms Ho was killed shortly after returning home from work at about midnight on 7 June 1998.

The pathologist said the time could tie in with screams a neighbour had heard sometime between midnight and 0030 BST.

However, under cross-examination from defence QC Philip Magee, the professor agreed that she could have been alive at 0600 BST, given that calculating the time of death was very difficult.

"I think it is possible, but I think it is not likely," he said.

In 2001, 45-year-old 'Jimmy' Wing Chun Yuen, who once owned a take-away restaurant in Dundonald and lived in Carryduff, was acquitted of murdering Ms Ho, his former lover.

The trial of Mr Wong continues.