Case Background

The Sau Mau Ping Gangs Corpse Burning Case, which happened in 14th May 1997, was a juvenile delinquency case that occurred in Hong Kong. The victim, Lu Zhi Wei, who is aged at 16, was one of the gang’s members before he was killed by the other gang members. There were altogether 14 defendants, who were under 18 at the time they commit the crime. The reason why Lu was killed by the gangsters is that Lu persuaded a mentally ill patient with surname Chan who was bullied by the gangsters to report to the police. Because of Lu’s betrayal, he was lured to room 1508 by other gangsters and suffered from punishments. Different kinds of inhumane treatments were carried out on Lu, including a constant barrage of kicks, punches, and blows with poles, wooden sticks, folding stools and, finally, metal water pipes. In the beginning, Lu was mauled by the boys only. However, the girls joined to kick and punch Lu later. Although Lu screamed in pain, the gangsters continue to beat Lu. One of the gangsters had asked the others to let Lu go, but they said that Lu had to apologize. Later on, Lu was laid on the floor with blood and showed no breathing as a result of those inhumane treatments. The gangsters attempted to rescue Lu by using tissue to stop Lu from bleeding. However, Lu did not survive. Finally, Lu died under their torture. So, the gangsters burned Lu’s corpse and dumped it into a trash room in order to destroy the evidence[1].