The Queen v. Li Lun-hoi

CACC001387/1983

Coram: Sir Denys Roberts, C.J., Sir Alan Huggins, V.-P. & Barker, J. A.

Date of Judgment: 20th February 1984

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JUDGMENT

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Sir Alan Huggins, V.-P. :

1. This is an application to appeal against sentence.

2. The Applicant was convicted of robbery and sentenced to five years' imprisonment. He pleaded guilty to the offence. When he appeared before us on a previous occasion it appeared that he might have some mental instability and we asked for psychiatric reports. There is a history of meningitis at an early age which resulted in his being behind in his school work. There was no further illness but he twice received an injury to his head and in January he was suffering from a reactive depressive state. The learned judge took a serious view of taxi robberies - very properly so : we accept that taxi drivers must be protected and we will not interfere in the normal case of taxi robberies with sentences of five and six years. In the present case we do have some residual anxiety about the mental state of the Applicant and the effect that a long term of imprisonment might have upon him. The judge had before him reports from a probation officer and from the Correctional Services Department. The Commissioner of Correctional Services recommended that he be detained in a detention centre. (He is too old to be sent to a training centre.) There was a place available for him in October.

3. We think on anxious consideration that this is one of the rare cases where a measure of leniency is not out of place. Without in any way seeking to suggest that the sentence imposed was anything but a proper sentence in a normal case, we think that the information now before us (which was not before the learned trial judge) justifies our taking a more lenient view than he was able to do. We do not wish to adjourn this case yet again for further reports and therefore we propose to make a conditional order. We order that the appeal be allowed and that a sentence of detention in a detention centre be substituted on condition that the Applicant is physically fit for training in a detention centre and that there is a place available to him. If these conditions are not satisfied he will have to be brought back before the court.

20th February 1984