Korean lecturer commits perfect crime...almost

HE THOUGHT he had committed the perfect murder. After all, he is a computer expert and believed he had covered up his tracks well.

But on Tuesday, the law caught up with the university professor in Busan, South Korea.

The lecturer, identified by Korea Times as Kang, 53, hatched an elaborate plan to kill his wife with the help of his mistress.

The newspaper did not say how his wife was killed.

Before committing the crime, Kang searched for an ideal spot to get rid of her body.

He decided to dump her corpse in the waters of Eulsukdo, a sandy island on the estuary of the Nakdong River, which drains into the sea.

He roped in his mistress to help dispose of the body using her car.

Kang made sure that he went to different shops to buy ropes and a large bag to contain the body. He also went all the way to Yangsan, a town west of Busan, to buy a metal chain.

Ten days before the murder, he avoided using his mobile phone to contact his mistress, calling her from public telephones instead.

And aware of how CCTVs were the downfall of many criminals, he went into the management office of his apartment building and downloaded CCTV footage to his USB drive to study.

Kang was said to have carefully selected where he would meet his wife and planned an escape route that could not be captured on the CCTV.

Police said they studied more than 160 video recordings but could not find Kang in any of them.

Airtight alibi

The suspect also hatched an airtight alibi.

He arranged the murder to coincide with dinner with his mountain-climbing group.

After killing his wife, he went to a bar at 1.30am and stayed there till 5am the next day.

He was said to have deliberately asked the bar owner if it was 12.30am, to fudge the time that he actually went there.

The lecturer changed his mobile phone after he murdered his wife.

He allegedly even went to the headquarters of telco KakaoTalk to erase text messages he had sent his mistress.

Despite his careful preparations, Busan police managed to find a trail that led to him.

Traces of his wife's blood were found in his car. While he avoided being caught on CCTV near his home, he overlooked the CCTV in the shop where he bought large bags to hold the body.

Investigators also managed to recover his SMSes from KakaoTalk.

Police said that Kang's biggest mistake was to pick Eulsukdo as the dump site.

Due to the large differences in the tides, the body bag was swept to shore and discovered.

"Kang may be an expert in computer crimes but he does not have professional knowledge and experience to cover up a murder," one police officer told Korea Times.

"It was impossible for him to commit the perfect crime."

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British lecturer detained over fatal pub brawl

KUALA LUMPUR: A father of three died at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital on Sunday morning hours after being assaulted by a British lecturer outside a pub in Pandan Indah.

Leong Chin Yap, 50, died of head injuries after being hit with a blunt object and punched several times on the side of his head.

A 53-year-old British national, lecturing at a local college, was remanded by police yesterday.

Selangor police chief Datuk Tun Hisan Tun Hamzah confirmed the incident but declined to elaborate as investigations were ongoing.

The attack occurred early on Sunday morning when a group of Thai women were having a birthday celebration at the pub.

Pub owner Shirley Leong Siew Lai, 46, said the women were ordering drinks and mingling with other guests, including the British national and his male friend who were sitting at a different table.

"As the night wore on, the women ordered more and more drinks and were getting quite drunk. Some of them went and sat with the British man and his friend," she told reporters last night at the Xiao En funeral parlour in Jalan Kuari.

"When given the bill later, the women refused to pay, saying that they did not order the drinks. I confronted them but was kicked in the shin," Shirley said.

"My brother Leong, who helps me out in the kitchen, came to my assistance. Both of us grabbed the girl to escort her out, so as not to disrupt operations in the pub."

However, it is understood that as Shirley and her brother were taking the girl outside, the British lecturer allegedly punched Leong several times on the side of the head without provocation.

He started bleeding from the nose and vomited blood. Shirley said they rushed her brother to a nearby private hospital but he was transferred to Kuala Lumpur Hospital.

Leong died without regaining consciousness and the initial autopsy report revealed that he died of severe head injury and a fractured skull. He is survived by a wife and three daughters, aged 22, 20, 18. Leong was the sole breadwinner.

A police report was lodged and the British national was arrested. It is learnt that he had been working in Malaysia for about six months.

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