8. It was an admitted fact that the applicant killed all four of the deceased on Sunday 5 July 2009 at their village house in Ping Che Village, Ta Kwu Ling, New Territories. The applicant was a cousin of Mr Tam, who was then a visitor from the Mainland on a Two-way Permit. The applicant had, for a number of years before the killings, been a regular visitor to Hong Kong and had performed various renovation works on the Tam’s village house. After killing the deceased, the applicant buried them within the compound on which the Tams’ home stood.
9. The deceased died sometime between about 11.30 am and 3.02 pm on 5 July 2009. This timeframe has been fixed by reference to the fact that Mr Tam had visited his mother in an old people’s home in the morning and did not leave until about 11.30 am and the fact that at 3.02 pm the applicant is recorded as having tried to use Madam Tong’s Visa card to withdraw money from an ATM machine at Sheung Shui MTR station.
10. In the morning of 6 July 2009, which was a Monday, the applicant ordered bags of cement, paying an additional sum for immediate delivery. Later that day, colleagues of Mr Tam and Madam Tong each respectively called the Tams’ home to enquire as to their whereabouts because they had not turned up for work that day. Each was informed by a man who answered the telephone that they had gone back to Dongguan. A colleague of Mr Tam remained suspicious and reported the matter to the police who went to the Tam’s home at about 1.15 pm. On their arrival, they were informed by a neighbour of the Tams, Mr Wong, that they had gone to Dongguan. Mr Wong had been asked by the applicant to tell the police this. However, the police not being satisfied with this explanation, Mr Wong led them to the applicant.
11. The police questioned the applicant and he proceeded to inform them of a number of matters, which were later found to be lies. These
