A Malaysian doctor has been accused of filling a yoga ball with carbon monoxide gas which gradually leaked from the exercise equipment, poisoning his wife and child to death.

Khaw Kim-sun, a 53-year-old anaesthetist, has pleaded not guilty in his Hong Kong trial for the murder of the two family members, who were discovered dead in a parked car in 2015, according to RTHK news.

Kim-sun had indicated to colleagues at the university where he worked that two gas-filled balls would be used for an experiment. He also suggested that he planned to exterminate rodents at his home. Prosecutors allege that he instead hatched a plan to gas his wife, because she refused to grant him a divorce.

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Kim-sun is accused of placing one of exercise balls in the back of a vehicle driven by his wife, Wong Siew. A Hong Kong court heard that Siew and her 16-year-old daughter were found dead inside a yellow Mini Cooper on May 22, 2015.

A postmortem uncovered that the pair had died from inhaling carbon monoxide, but the source of the gas was not found to have come from the vehicle, reported the South China Morning Post.

Police then became suspicious of a deflated yoga ball found inside the car. On Wednesday, the court was told that the likely target of the gas was Wong Siew and not the couple’s daughter.

“The last thing the accused wanted was for his 16-year-old to die,” said Andrew Bruce SC, chief prosecutor.

“[But] if that person knew what was in the car was carbon monoxide and knew it was a dangerous gas likely to kill you, you can confirm this person had homicide on his mind,” he added. The trial continues.

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