Chau Chi-hung and Another v. The Queen
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CACC000614/1977
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----------------- Coram: Huggins and Pickering, JJ.A. and McMullin, J. Date of Judgment: 22nd August 1977. ----------------- JUDGMENT ----------------- Huggins, J.A.: 1. The Appellant appeals against his sentences of four years' imprisonment and twenty-one months' imprisonment consecutive on convictions of robbery and indecent assault. 2. Briefly the facts were that a gang of young men, armed with vicious looking knives, went to an apartment house. They attacked and bound the staff and then robbed all the occupants. In the course of the robbery this Appellant indecently assaulted a young woman who was staying in the apartment house. Without going into details it was a serious indecent assault. 3. The only real mitigating factor in this case was that at the time of the offences the Appellant was sixteen years and five months old. His companions were slightly older and one of them actually committed rape upon another visitor to the apartment house. The learned judge said that he took into account the age of this Appellant. He also took into account a second robbery offence, which the Appellant asked should be taken into consideration. That was a robbery of a taxi driver, which is no light matter. 4. After most anxious consideration we have come to the conclusion that although the learned judge did make some allowance for the Appellant's age he did not make sufficient allowance. We think it is inevitable that the Appellant should go to prison and should go to prison for a substantial period, but a total of nearly six years was very heavy indeed. Without in any way minimizing the seriousness of these two separate and distinct offences we think that justice will be done if we order that the sentences as passed by the learned judge be ordered to run concurrently. The appeal is allowed to that extent. 22nd August 1977. Representation: |