Hung Chor-ming v. The Queen

CACC000448/1975

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF HONG KONG

(APPELLATE JURISDICTION)

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 448 OF 1975

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Coram: Briggs, C.J.

Date of Judgment: 9th June, 1975.

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JUDGMENT

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1. The appellant, a youth of 19, pleaded guilty to a charge of defilement of a girl aged 13. The girl was reported missing by her parents in September 1974 and she and the appellant were found by the police in April 1975. The girl and the appellant had been living together in a hut at Shek Kong. The girl is, at present, pregnant. The appellant was sentenced to detention in a training centre.

2. At the hearing of the appeal the girl, together with her parents and the parents of the appellant were all in court. I do not think that the magistrate would have passed the sentence he did had he seen the girl herself. She is a well-developed girl and, making due allowance for the fact that she is some five months' pregnant, she could well be taken to be a girl of 17. The parents of the girl and the parents of the appellant both wish the appellant to marry the girl when she reaches the age of 16. This is also the expressed intention of the appellant and the girl herself.

3. The appellant has already served a sentence in a training centre for an offence of robbery. He was released in 1973.

4. Taking all this into consideration I think the best course to take is to allow the appeal to the extent that a sentence of eighteen months' imprisonment, suspended for two years, is substituted for the present sentence of detention in a training centre and I order accordingly.

Representation:

Appellant in person.

F. Wong for crown/respondent.