Australian student, 23, on trial for killing Hong Kong taxi driver

Oct 12, 2010, 5:16 GMT

Hong Kong - A 23-year-old Australian student has gone on trial accused of killing a Hong Kong taxi driver in a drunken late-night altercation, a news report said Tuesday.

Wong Chi-ming, 58, was allegedly dragged along the road by his seatbelt after Kelsey Lord Michael Mudd took the wheel of the taxi in June 2009, the Hong Kong Standard reported.

At the opening of his trial Monday, Hong Kong's High Court heard that Wong was seen trying to pull someone out of the driver's seat of his taxi shortly before it drove away in the early hours of the morning.

Wong was apparently caught in his seat belt, and dragged beside the car for several metres before it crashed through the central reservation and came to a stop, the newspaper said. Wong died of multiple injuries.

When paramedics arrived at the scene, Mudd drove off in the taxi into the path of oncoming traffic, hitting another vehicle before stopping again, a jury was told.

Mudd, who was found to be more than three times over the drink-drive blood-alcohol level, denies manslaughter and an alternative count of causing death by dangerous driving.

He is also charged with taking a conveyance without authority, dangerous driving and drink-driving. The trial was due to continue Tuesday.

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