When a blackmail plot ended in the murder of an Australian tourist in Hong Kong
Fifty-four years ago, Ronald Alan Coombe was found stabbed to death in his hotel room after a confrontation with a fellow countryman, Graham Edwards
“An Australian tourist who arrived recently from Singapore was found murdered in his Tsimshatsui hotel suite,” reported the South China Morning Post on December 2, 1970. “Shortly after 9am, a cleaner of the Hongkong Hotel went into a room on the 12th floor and found the occupant with multiple stab wounds in the chest and head. The tourist, who registered at the hotel as Ronald Alan Coombe, 35, was scheduled to leave the Colony yesterday, reliable sources said.
“According to sources close to the police, a man was seen entering the room of Mr Coombs on Monday night, but had not been seen coming out. Detectives found bloodstains smeared on the walls of the room as well as on the window ledge. Bloodstains were also seen on a scaffolding erected outside the window, and detectives believed that the assailant, who was injured, escaped by way of the scaffolding.”
On December 31, 1970, the Post reported that “[A] 20-year-old Australian was further remanded for a week yesterday, on a charge of murder. Graham Edwards appeared before Mr A. Garcia in South Kowloon Court. He is accused of killing a fellow countryman, Dr Ronald Alan Coombe, in a Kowloon hotel on December 1. Edwards appeared barefooted and wearing a bandage around his injured left hand.”
On March 20, 1971, the Post learned that “Graham Edwards told a Criminal Sessions jury yesterday he intended to blackmail Dr Ronald Alan Coombe with a photograph that showed him in a compromising position with four other adults”.
“[Edwards] said he came to know Mrs Coombe towards the end of June last year and shortly after moved in as a lodger in her home. Edwards said that subsequently he learned that Dr Coombe has instituted divorce proceedings against his wife and advised her to consent to the divorce. To this proposal Mrs Coombe replied: ‘No, the bastard made me suffer for 10 years, now he can hang for a while,’ Edwards said.
“Edwards then gave evidence about a burglary he committed with another man in Dr Coombs’ home [in Sydney] in order to gain possession of a photograph which showed Dr Coombe in a compromising position with three females and a male. ‘The purpose of the burglary was to remove the photograph and blackmail Dr Coombe because he and his solicitor had used a very cruel form of legal trick into luring Mrs Coombe into the divorce agreement,’ Edwards said. He said he questioned Mrs Coombe about her husband’s sexual habits and learned that he was ‘kinky as a $3 bill’.
