HKSAR v. Tsim Sum Kit, Ada

Read the full judgment text of HCCC 272/2019 on BabelCite. This High Court CFI judgment was delivered on 15 July 2021.

Cited by 3 cases

Case No.HCCC 272/2019[2021] HKCFI 2518
Court
High Court CFI
Date15 Jul 2021
Judge
Case Document
100%Judiciary

HCCC 272/2019

[2021] HKCFI 2518

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 272 OF 2019

________________________

  HKSAR  
  v  
  Tsim Sum-kit, Ada  

________________________

Before:  Hon M Poon JA
Date:  15 July 2021 at 3.02 pm
Present:  Mr Derek Lai, SADPP, and Mr Michael Ma, SPP(Ag)  of the Department of Justice, for HKSAR
  Mr Edwin Choy, SC, leading Mr Joshua Ngai, instructed by GT Lawyers, assigned by DLA, for the accused
Offence:   (1) & (2) Murder (謀殺)
  (3) & (4) Shooting with intent (有意圖而射擊)

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

________________________


COURT: Stand up, Defendant. You had initiated a lunch gathering under the pretext of thanking your uncles and aunts. Unbeknown to them, you carried with you a lethal weapon, a pistol, and a total of 50 rounds of ammunition when you attended that.

You were in their company for a few hours, first in a restaurant, and then in a park. You even demonstrated martial arts with the second deceased minutes before you shot at them one after another, all out of a sudden within splits of seconds. You targeted and shot them at close distance. You shot two of them in the head and killed them.

You then shot PW1 on his side and the bullet pierced through his thoracic cavity and ended up somewhere near his fourth rib. This surviving uncle of yours related his horrifying experience in court of you pointing the pistol at him emotionless and cold. He, now in his 70s, was in tears whilst testifying and being asked to relive this traumatic experience.

Well, if you continue to interrupt, you will have to sit inside whilst I sentence you. If I were you I would keep quiet.

As for your third aunt you missed and the bullet caused two graze wounds on her left shoulder. She told us that she now could not watch television with gunshot scenes and would avoid going to the vicinity of the area of the shooting. You are shameless in your letter to your third aunt a month after the shooting. Your concern about her injuries was nothing more than superficial. You are shameless in telling her that although the gun contained nine rounds of ammunition, you did not and would not fire another shot at her.

You are also shameless in turning to your elder brother for help when you were in remand, asking him to buy you clothes, snacks and your course materials for your studies. Although you also pointed the gun to him at the time of the killing but in the end you did not shoot, he still nonetheless cared for you and tried his best to comply with your request.

You are also an ungrateful soul. You killed the second deceased who had paid for your tuition fees for computer courses although you never finished them. All these show what sort of person you are. Two lives are wasted as a result of this brutal and cold-blooded execution.

Protection of human life is a foremost objective of our criminal justice system. The unlawful taking of a life must meet with a sentence which reflects its gravity. Having been convicted of the two counts of murder by the jury I have no discretion on the sentence I impose on you, but I must make it clear had I the discretion, that would still be the sentence that I would pass. You are sentenced to life on each of those charges.

In respect of the two shooting with intent counts, whilst counsel submitted because of the difference in the injuries suffered by PW1 and PW2 that should be reflected in the sentence, I do not agree. It is sheer luck that PW2 only received grazed wounds over her shoulder. For each of the shooting counts, you are sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment and I will order 6 years out of the 4th charge to run consecutively to the 3rd charge, all sentences to run concurrently. You go to prison for life.