Chow Tsz-lok Inquest Sees Telegram Messages He Sent

The Coroner’s Court looking into the death of Chow Tsz-lok during last year's protests has been shown messages he apparently sent on Telegram not long before he was found seriously injured in a Tseung Kwan O car park.

Police detective Lam Chi-keung told the inquest that officers had downloaded a list of login passwords which Chow, 22, had saved on the Chrome internet browser on his desktop at home.

Lam said they then used a password from the list to unlock the student's iPad and Macbook.

The court was shown screen captures from Chow’s iPad and messages he sent in two Telegram groups between 11:28pm on November 3 and 12:49am on November 4.

“F**k they fired up at the car park,” he wrote at 12.41am in a group containing six members called “Airplane men group”.

“Close window,” a friend replied.

“Am downstairs,” Chow said.

“Will you be able to go back,” the friend asked.

“Only watching the show in the car park,” Chow responded at 12:46am.

“Didn’t bring a thing,” he added.

“Isn’t the view better at home?” the friend asked again.

“Can’t see”, Chow replied at 12:49am, adding that he had brought something for some people downstairs.

The conversation then stopped. Twenty-three minutes later, Chow’s friend in the group asked “safe?”

But the student did not respond.

In another Telegram group which had eight members, Chow tagged a person and asked “safe?” at 11:28am on November 3. A person then replied ”safe”.

Chow also sent out a picture around at 12:46am, which appeared to show an intersection near the car park.

Lam said officers were unable to find out the identities of the people in the two groups. He added they also looked in Chow’s Macbook and his browsing history, but didn’t find anything special.

He said they had not been able to unlock the student’s iPhone despite twice emailing Apple to ask for assistance.

Lam said they got replies from the company saying that it couldn’t offer any technological support and there is no way it could access its customers’ locked iPhones.

After Tuesday's hearing, coroner David Ko called on those who were in Chow’s Telegram groups and had more information to contact the Coroner’s Court and the police.

He also said he would summon one or two ambulancemen to testify again in court.

Ko added that the inquest won’t be completed as originally scheduled this week and after Friday's hearing, they will resume again on December 28, hopefully wrapping up one to two weeks after that.