HKSAR v. Siu Wai Cheong

HCCC 417/2017

[2019] HKCFI 3094

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 417 OF 2017

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Transcript of the Audio Recording
of the Sentence in the above Case

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COURT:

Defendant, by the jury’s verdict, you have been found guilty of murder, which as you know is the most serious offence. That fateful night, you killed your wife aggressively and violently, using a very lethal weapon which were those sharp, long, pointed blades on the scissors. It was violent and aggressive. The pathologist clearly said she had struggled during that encounter with you. In your video-recorded interview with the police, you even say she was struggling, or she was awesome in her struggle and saying, “No, no, no.”

Through the jury’s verdict, they have rejected your case in that you had no intent to kill or cause her serious bodily harm, and have also through the verdict rejected the defence of provocation. As your counsel, Mr Raffell, says, there is really nothing much he can say in mitigation, but that this is a very sad outcome, particularly obviously for the family and your children who have lost their mother.

I accept that you felt some remorse or guilt because you surrendered yourself to the police very shortly after this violent attack on your wife. You immediately told the police that you were willing to serve 20 years in jail. For this offence, as you know, defendant, is, as your counsel Mr Raffell says, I am bound to impose a sentence for this offence as a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment. As this is the only sentence I am able to pass for an adult offender on a conviction of murder, defendant, I sentence you to life imprisonment.