Fang-hon's Death
p.11
It is germane to observe further that the
pathologist's report was less than fulsome in its terms.
Whilst the injuries suffered were listed, there does
not seem to have been any attempt made to use laboratory
analysis to ascertain, for example, whether any foreign
matter existed in the damaged skull which could have been
implanted therein by some sort of blow prior to the fall
and ensuing contact with the road surface. Certainly the
Government Pathologist was minded to agree with counsel
on cross-examination that the injuries suffered would not
have been inconsistent with a beating prior to the fall.
Nor were photographs of the injuries available at the
inquest it is not known whether any exist, although
this might be supposed to be standard practice.
Anonymous phone-calls
It is both natural and correct to refrain from attaching
evidential weight to any anonymous phone-calls. They
are merely cited here, however, since their occurrence
provides a further element, albeit hardly a significant
one, in the composite picture. Two calls were in fact
received: the first on the 30th July 1977, the day of
the funeral, when a family friend took a call at the
deceased's home. The caller stated that he wished to
speak to the deceased's sister but refused to disclose
his name, stating that if he did so he would meet the same
fate as the deceased. The second occasion occurred on the
16th August 1977 (10 days after a press conference held by
a number of Chinese University students interested in focusing and maintaining public attention on Liu Ping-hon's
death) in which the President of the Student
received a call from a person who said that he had been
Union
a colleague of the deceased and that the matter was not
a simple one. The caller said that Liu Ping-hon did not
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commit suicide, but that it was very troublesome to be
a witness.