The Attorney General v. Wu Wan-ping and Others
Read the full judgment text of CAAR 15/1974 on BabelCite. This Court of Appeal judgment.
1. Almost three and a half years ago, that is to say on the 19th March 1974, a woman then eight and a half months pregnant was alone in her hut when four Chinese men each bearing a knife rushed into the hut. One of them grabbed her by the hand and pointed his knife at the back of her neck telling her not to say anything; two of the others then walked out of the hut apparently to keep watch whilst the fourth ransacked the hut. Cash, two gold rings, a wrist watch and two cassette radios were taken
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CAAR000015/1974
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----------------- Coram: Briggs, C.J., Pickering, J.A. & Leonard, J. Date of Judgment: 14th September, 1977. ----------------- DECISION ----------------- Pickering, J.A.: 1. Almost three and a half years ago, that is to say on the 19th March 1974, a woman then eight and a half months pregnant was alone in her hut when four Chinese men each bearing a knife rushed into the hut. One of them grabbed her by the hand and pointed his knife at the back of her neck telling her not to say anything; two of the others then walked out of the hut apparently to keep watch whilst the fourth ransacked the hut. Cash, two gold rings, a wrist watch and two cassette radios were taken. 2. The respondent was one of three men convicted of this offence. In sentencing them the learned judge said "There is a saying that justice must be tempered with mercy". He then proceeded to put the three upon a bond in the sum of $2,000 each to be of good behaviour for 24 months. It was with no surprise that this Court learned that the Attorney General was applying for a review of these sentences and the Court granted leave for such a review. None of the three appeared upon the return date and we are told that the present respondent was arrested only yesterday in connection with another offence and was then identified as one of the accused in the earlier case. He tells us that although he was served with notice to attend the Court upon the application for review, that service was not effected until approximately one week after the return date and he thereafter ignored it. 3. It was only a few weeks ago that this Court said, in increasing a sentence of four years' imprisonment to one of six years, that in respect of the type of offence which involves entering domestic premises with knives, binding and blindfolding the inhabitants, as this lady was bound and blinfolded, in the ordinary case sentences of six years' imprisonment were unlikely to be interfered with by this Court. That of course was a very recent pronouncement and did not obtain in 1974. This type of offence was nonetheless a very serious offence in 1974 as now and it justified then, as now, a custodial sentence. On the other hand we have to recognise that attempts to arrest this respondent during the past three and a half years so as to bring him before this Court have been either non-existent or extremely feeble for he tells us that he has been in the same static occupation as a waiter for the past two years. In addition to that we have to recognise that the offence is now extremely stale and that the respondent has accustomed himself to a new way of life and has apparently, until yesterday, kept out of further trouble for several years. In all the circumstances, while we consider that a custodial sentence must be imposed, we feel that it would be unrealistic to impose today anything approaching the sentence which should have been imposed three and a half years ago. Having regard to these factors the sentence of binding over is set aside and the respondent is sentenced to three months' imprisonment. Representation: I.H. Polson for Crown/applicant. Poon Chi-wai, 2nd respondent in person. |