The would-be victim of an alleged murder plot has described waking up to find the security cameras painted over at her home.
By Finn Blackwell of RNZ
Lok Fung Lorrence Li is on trial in the High Court in Auckland for the murder of Fuk-Fu Joseph Kwok and his wife Mei Han Chong in their home in Ellerslie three years ago.
He's also been charged with conspiring to murder his former landlord.
The landlord, who has name suppression, gave evidence at his trial on Wednesday.
She told the court through an interpreter she rented a single room to Li in March 2023.
Li was a polite tenant, she said.
While there, Li had asked his landlord if his mother could stay in the room with him.
"I said 'the room is very small, and you can find a bigger room'," the landlord said.
Li agreed, and moved out in June.
When his landlord was late to the property change-over, Li began to text her, growing increasingly frustrated.
"The message I can clearly remember said 'if you don't pick up the phone I'll report to the police'," she said.
The texts had made her uneasy, she said.
The change-over continued without anything more, but with Li, the landlord said, was an older man, introduced to her as Li's older brother.
She said his surname was Pan.
The landlord said the two seemed very close.
"The feeling I got at the moment when he said he's the big brother, I felt like he's the one who can protect him," she said.
"He didn't mention he had a brother, so I thought he's not his biological brother."
Li's alleged co-conspirator, Shu Man Poon, pleaded guilty to his role in the killings last year.
He is expected to give evidence later in the trial.
In the following months, Li asked to return to the rental to look for a suitcase.
The landlord said the small room Li rented had been left empty.
She eventually went to meet with Li in late August but was greeted instead by his "big brother Pan".
They searched for the suitcase, with Li arriving later, but could not find it.
Months later in early November, the landlord woke one morning and found paint on the ground at her home.
She followed it to find her CCTV cameras and sensor lights had been painted over.
The cameras themselves hadn't been recording at the time.
She thought someone had tried to steal a car parked in the drive, the landlord said, cleaning the cameras and turning them back on.
Between 10pm and 11pm that night, the newly restored cameras captured two people wearing caps and masks going past the door.
The camera made a sound and the two spotted the camera and proceeded to leave.
The camera incident in November happened days before the Kwoks were killed, she said.
The landlord would later recognise the pair as Li and his "big brother".
She recognised "Pan" by his body, and Li by his walk, the landlord said.
The trial before Justice Anderson continues.
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