HONG KONG: A Hong Kong constable was ruled guilty on Wednesday of gunning down two fellow policemen and a security guard in a string of grisly shootings that shocked Hong Kong.

After nearly 10 hours of deliberations at the end of a two-month coroner's inquest, jurors unanimously found 35-year old constable Tsui Po-ko, who was killed in a shootout last year, responsible for the deaths.

In a case that had Hong Kong gossiping about the trial's details of gambling, sex and murder, more than 100 witnesses revealed lurid details of the cop-killer whose brutal attacks confounded those who knew him as an intelligent and ambitious man who had earned top honours in police training school.

"I feel very sad. I respect the court and the jury," said Tsui's grieving mother Cheung Wai-mei, 62, after the verdict was recorded.

"I painfully accept their decisions because I believe my son is a very, very good son, a good father and husband. I don't believe that he has done it," Cheung said.

Coroner Michael Chan described the inquest as "the most difficult case for a jury I've ever seen".

The jury heard that Tsui's murder spree ended in March last year when he ambushed patrolmen 33-year-old Tsang Kwok-hang and fellow cop Sin Ka-keung in an underpass in the city's busy Tsim Sha Tsui tourist strip.

The attack left Tsang dead and Sin critically wounded.

But as Tsang fell to his death, he had just enough life left in him to take one final shot at Tsui, hitting his target square in the head.

Investigators then made a startling discovery -- the weapon found on Tsui's body was identified as that used in the slaying of policeman Leung Shing-yan, 24, and security guard Zafar Iqbal Khan, 31, five years earlier.

Leung was shot in the head and chest after answering a bogus noise complaint in March 2001. His gun was subsequently stolen and the same weapon was used to gun down Khan during a bank heist nine months later, the inquest heard.

FBI criminal profiler James McNamara had told the hearing that Tsui's behaviour fit into most of the definitions of people suffering from schizotypical disorder, characterised by a need for social isolation.

He was considered by colleagues as egotistical and particularly enjoyed boasting about having won thousands of dollars on a TV game show that tested general knowledge.

Tsui also lived a secret life of prostitutes and heavy gambling, the hearing was told. Through his nefarious activities he had ammassed some three million Hong Kong dollars (385,000 US) in assets and secret investments that had never been revealed to his wife.

He reportedly went down the wrong path after being overlooked for promotion despite 13 years on the force. Colleagues blamed this on what they called an oversized ego.


- AFP/so