A 27-year-old air-conditioning technician pleaded not guilty yesterday to the slaying of a Thai tourist in 2005.

Appearing before Judge Clare-Marie Beeson of the Court of First Instance of the High Court, downcast in a light blue shirt, So Kam-tong heard the charge of murder read, for the killing of 40-year-old jewelry trader Charitar Kamolnoranath, also known as Peggy amongst her friends and relatives.

According to prosecution counsel Simon Tam, forensic investigations revealed Kamolnoranath died of strangulation and a stab wound to her right chest.

Her body was found in a utility room on the 33 floor of the Revenue Tower in 2005 but the case went cold until the latter half of 2008 when police arrested air-conditioning technician Kwok Chi-fai.

He was charged with preventing the lawful burial of a body but that the charge was dropped in January 2009.

According to Tam, Kwok had agreed to testify as a key witness against his former colleague So in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

Kwok was allegedly asked by So to enter the utility room in mid-October, where So found the body covered in newspapers with the head wrapped in a red plastic bag, Tam said.

Tam said Kwok saw the body had its arms tied behind its back and that he helped So move the body from the floor to a place on top of an overhanging duct.

So then allegedly removed the plastic bag and told Kwok he threatened Kamolnoranath with a knife in an elevator before robbing her in the utility room.

Tam said Kamolnoranath had a black handbag, passport, two credit cards and cell phones along with some cosmetics, a pair of sunglasses and a few hundred Hong Kong dollars at the time of her disappearance.

When her body was discovered, she was still wearing two pearl earrings, a gold earring, a gold and silver Rolex and a fake Tiffany bracelet.

A search of So's residence in Kui Wo House in Tai Wo Estate, Tai Po on May 28, 2008 yielded one of Kamolnoranath's cell phones and a meat knife, both of which were produced as evidence yesterday.

So was arrested on June 6 2008.

Following yesterday's jury selection of six women and a male, the case is expected to run for two weeks, Justice Beeson said.

The victim arrived in the city from Bangkok with her Australian photographer boyfriend, Wade John Muller, on October 10, 2005. Kamolnoranath checked into the Metropole Hotel in Kowloon with Muller, who was visiting the city for business reasons, while the deceased had planned to fill her time sightseeing and shopping before returning home on October 14.

Having left on the morning of October 11 to attend a business meeting in Central, Muller asked Kamolnoranath to pick up some literature from the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority (TELA) at the Revenue Tower but she could not do so because the building was closed due to a public holiday.

The following day the two again parted ways with Muller heading to Central and Kamolnoranath planning to revisit the TELA office. Muller received a final SMS from Kamolnoranath just after 4.30 pm when she wrote she would meet up later that evening.

When she failed to return the following morning, Muller went to the Royal Thai Embassy before lodging a report with police on October 13.

The following day there were three attempts to use Kamolnoranath's credit card at an ATM machine in Tai Wo Shopping Centre before it was swallowed by the machine.

Her body was found around midday October 24, 2005 by an air-conditioning pipe technician Tam Shing-wong. The body had been hidden on top of the overhanging air duct, inside a switch room in the Revenue Tower.

(HK Edition 03/02/2010 page1)