CHAU MA had returned from a morning walk with the dog when a man who
appeared to be a courier banged on the front door of her home in Concord
with a package for her husband, Dominic Li. When she summoned him to the
door he was “violently and brutally” attacked and doused in hydrochloric
acid as part of a plan to intimidate Mr Li’s brother-in-law, Philip Ma, the
NSW Supreme Court was told. At the trial of three men accused of murdering
Mr Li, the prosecutor, Christopher Maxwell, SC, said the two men on the
veranda that morning, December 13, 2002, had been hired for $10,000 to do
serious bodily injury to Mr Li. “The acid had been poured onto his [hair]and eyes, and some indeed went into his mouth, which he swallowed,” Mr
Maxwell said. “The effects of this were horrific. He was blinded, but even
more significant, his vital organs were badly damaged by the ingestion of
the hydrochloric acid.”

Mr Li died three weeks later.

Yonky Irvin Tan and the two men allegedly on the veranda that morning,
Richard Burton Nimmo and Maua Sua, have pleaded not guilty to murder. The
court heard Philip Ma, a professional gambler, had been given $800,000 by
Tan, who had allegedly instructed him to launder it through casinos.

Mr Maxwell said Tan delivered rice bags full of cash to Mr Ma. But the
gambler’s luck had turned, and instead of earning a promised commission for
laundering the money, Ma lost $500,000 in the Crown Casino in Melbourne. Mr
Maxwell said Mr Ma was under pressure from Tan and his associate Emil Chang
to repay the money. Late in 2002 Mr Ma went into hiding.

Mr Maxwell alleged emails between Tan and Mr Chang showed a criminal
agreement to hire someone to throw acid on Mr Li’s face, with the idea of
flushing Mr Ma out of hiding.

In one email, Mr Chang quoted a Chinese proverb about flushing a snake from
its nest. “Do D first and P will come out of his nest.” The emails allegedly
said: “The only way to get money back is through violence . D and P are
family.”

Ms Ma said in evidence that one of the men yanked her husband out of the
door and forced her with a gun to come out on the porch, where she and her
husband both crouched.

One of the men hit her husband over the head with a gun, and then she saw
the dark green liquid in a bottle. Both men, whom she described as being of
Pacific Islander appearance, wore dark glasses and gloves.

Ms Ma said the men ran away after the attack, and she rang for an ambulance
and the police.

The trial, before Justice Derek Price, continues.