HKSAR v. Khaosa-at Wannakon

HCCC249/2008

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 249 OF 2008

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HKSAR

v

Khaosa-at Wannakon

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Before:  Deputy High Court Judge Longley

Date: 11 February 2009 at 3.34 pm

Offence: Attempted rape (企圖強姦)

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

COURT:  Khaosa-at Wannakon, stand up.  You have been convicted by the jury of attempting to rape Madam Buasri Yom at her home in Tuen Mun San Tsuen on the evening of 5 July last year.

At the time of the offence you had only recently arrived in Hong Kong from your native Thailand and were living in the same village as Madam Yom.  Madam Yom was a 48-year-old lady also from Thailand, who had been living in Hong Kong for many years.  Although she had seen you in the village, she was not acquainted with you.

On the evening in question, she and her godson were in the village obtaining ingredients for their evening meal.  They started to chat to you, and out of kindness to a fellow countryman, they invited you to have dinner with them at Madam Yom’s home.  Having had dinner, Madam Yom’s godson left to visit a friend.  You used a pretext to stay on.

When Madam Yom got up to show you to the door, you embraced her and pressed your private parts against her private parts.  She attempted to push you off, and told you to stop, but you pushed her into the bedroom and onto the bed.  Using your forearm to pin her down, you started to touch her sexual organs through her clothing.  She told you to stop.  Instead of doing so, and while you were on top of her, you removed your trousers and underpants and then managed to remove her trousers and pants despite her attempts to resist.  You pulled up her upper clothing, including her brassiere, and rubbed your face against her breasts before squeezing them with your hand.  You then inserted your fingers into her private parts, and after that you attempted to insert your penis into her vagina.  In order to do so, you attempted to part her legs, but through struggling she prevented you from getting more than one leg between her legs.

You only stopped your attack when she used the ploy of suggesting that you come back the following day and she would have sex with you then.

This was an outrageous and violent attack on a woman who was only extending hospitality to you.  It clearly caused her great distress.  Fortunately, though, she did not suffer physical injuries beyond redness and scratching to her chest area.

The fact that no force was used beyond that you thought necessary to effect your purpose is a factor I bear in mind in mitigation.  I also bear in mind that you did not persist in the attack when the prospect of Madam Yom being willing to have sex with you the following day was held out to you.

In my view, the appropriate starting point in this case is a sentence of 4 years’ imprisonment.  You are a man without previous convictions, but that can only have very limited significance when it comes to an offence as serious as this.  You cannot claim in mitigation to be remorseful for what you have done.  I have not seen a trace of remorse during the course of this trial.

I see no reason to grant any discount on the starting point to which I have referred.

Accordingly, I sentence you to 4 years’ imprisonment.