{"id":18413,"date":"2026-09-03T12:16:51","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T00:16:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18413"},"modified":"2026-09-03T12:16:51","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T00:16:51","slug":"ellerslie-homicide-accuseds-church-friend-went-to-pastor-over-murder-plot-court-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18413","title":{"rendered":"Ellerslie homicide: Accused’s church friend went to pastor over murder plot, court told"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Lok Fung Lorrence Li roped in a church friend to help him murder his landlady and the friend told his pastor, says the Crown.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Li is on trial for the murders of Auckland couple Fuk-Fu Joseph Kwok and his wife Mei Han Chong in 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

He is also charged with conspiring to murder his former landlord.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

A jury heard today that the man Li allegedly plotted with told a church leader about the alleged murder plot on his landlord, two months before the Kwoks were killed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Li’s former landlord – who can not be named – gave evidence today through an interpreter about some paint which mysteriously appeared on her security cameras, just days before the Kwoks were killed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“My husband saw the paint on the ground and the camera, and then asked me to come out and have a look, so we also noticed the sensor lights were painted,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The Crown said Li and another man – Shu Man Poon – went to the landlord’s home with murder on their mind, but were spooked off.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Poon pleaded guilty to his role in the Kwok killings, and was expected to give evidence later in the trial.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Jurors later heard from Shing Shan Yim, a part-time pastor of Li and Poon’s church.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Speaking through an interpreter, Yim said he visited an anxious Poon in September 2023, with another pastor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“Poon is owing somebody some money, and forcing him to do something as part of the favour,” Yim was told.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

He said it was Lorrence Li, another member of their church, who he owed money to.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Poon showed him a weapon, and said he was being made to rob someone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“He mentioned about going to tie them up then rob their money.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

During the confessional, Poon was called by Li. The call was put on speaker phone where the church leaders heard Poon pleading with Li not to go ahead with the plan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“We shouldn’t do this, and we should stop right now,” Poon said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Yim and the other pastor convinced Poon to go to the police, driving him to the Auckland Central station.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

In the Crown’s opening, jurors heard Poon told police he was $7000 in debt to Li, and that Li said he could clear the debt by taking part in the alleged murder.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“Mr Poon told that front-counter staff member he’d been trying to deter Mr Li from the plan but felt the only way out was to kill himself,” Crown Prosecutor Harrison Bell said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“He mentioned he had been struggling with his mental health and that he’d taken a bunch of pills and began crying out in pain, clutching his head.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

He was taken to hospital, and the date of the alleged planned murder was pushed out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

It was later in early November that year that the pair allegedly went to the landlord’s property, days before the Kwoks were killed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The trial continues on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Source: RNZ<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lok Fung Lorrence Li roped in a church friend to help him murder his landlady and the friend told his pastor, says the Crown. Li is on trial for the murders of Auckland couple Fuk-Fu Joseph Kwok and his wife Mei Han Chong in 2023. He is also charged with conspiring to murder his former […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18415,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18413\/revisions\/18415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}