Lover 'didn't Want To Wreck Ex-official's Family'

In emotional testimony on Wednesday, Macau businesswoman Cheyenne Chan told Hong Kong's District Court that she didn't want her lover, senior civil servant Wilson Fung, to get divorced, because that would have destroyed his family.

As Chan took the stand in the pair's bribery trial, she described the former deputy secretary for economic development and labour as a gentleman, and said she was "very happy" when they were together.

She told the court that she had been a victim of marital abuse, and in 2002 she found out that her husband was cheating on her.

Chan also said she had to seek psychological counselling over this and her husband left her in July 2003.

Later that year, she met Fung at a gathering, and they soon developed a relationship.

The court had earlier heard that Fung had advised her on a number of property purchases over the years. But Chan said she wasn't particularly into buying homes, and she only hoped to spend more time with Fung.

She said she liked being called "Mrs Fung" when they were looking at flats together.

Chan said their relationship lasted more than a decade, before it ended in 2016.

The pair face bribery charges in connection with a HK$510,000 payment that Fung allegedly received from Chan in 2004 over the purchase of a property in Mid-Levels.

The prosecution says the money was a “sweetener” for the former official to be favourably disposed to her three airline and helicopter companies between 2004 and 2006.

Fung also faces a charge of misconduct in public office.