Wong Ping Nam v. The Queen
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CACC000829/1969 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF HONG KONG (APPELLATE JURISDICTION) CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 829 OF 1969 -----------------
Coram: Rigby, C.J. Date of Judgment: 12 February 1970 ----------------- JUDGMENT ----------------- 1. The appellant pleaded guilty to four charges preferred against him of robbery with aggravation. He was sentenced to four months' imprisonment on each charge, such sentences to run consecutively, making a total of sixteen months' imprisonment. He now appeals against that sentence. 2. The facts in each case are of a somewhat similar nature. On the 22nd October, 1969 the appellant and another youth hustled a youth of about their own age into a staircase and there, at the point of a knife, compelled him to take off and hand over his wrist watch. They then ran away. The youth made a report to the police station and on the evening of the same day a party of police, acting on information, picked up the appellant. He was interrogated and he then admitted that he had been concerned in the robbery and gave the name of the youth who was acting with him. The other youth was then arrested; information was given as a result of which the police were able to recover a wrist watch from a pawnbroker to whom it had been taken the same day, the 22nd October and pawned for $30. 3. At the police station the appellant was interrogated about other offences of a similar nature which had occurred in the same vicinity and he admitted the commission of three offences, precisely similar in nature, in which he and the other youth had held up youths of about their own age and compelled them to hand over their wrist watches. In each case, the two accused youths co-operated with the police as a result of which the three stolen wrist watches were recovered. It is relevant to mention that in two of those cases no report had been made to the police and two of the wrist watches which had been recovered, as a consequence of no report having been made, have not yet been claimed by their owners. 4. The appellant was born on the 13th April, 1953, so that he was still only 16 when he committed these four offences. Despite his youth he has a somewhat remarkable record. On the afternoon of the 3rd August, 1969, the police received certain information that a gang fight was going to take place that afternoon in a particular area. As a result, they lay in wait in the particular area and picked up about 20 youths who were seen arriving in small groups in that area, many of them carrying weapons concealed in paper parcels. The appellant was one of those youths. He was convicted of conspiracy to commit an affray, and possession of an unlawful weapon, an iron bar. It was also found that he was a comparatively recent member of the 14K Triad Society. The learned magistrate who was then hearing that case, very properly remanded the accused for a probation report and a training centre report. The Commissioner of Prisons then indicated that the appellant was unsuitable for a training centre because of his connection with a triad society. As a consequence, the learned magistrate then sentenced the appellant to three months' imprisonment. 5. When this appeal came before me, I adjourned it in the hope that, despite the previous report, it might still be possible for the appellant, having regard to his youth, to be sent to a training centre. Mr. Ainsworth, the Superintendent of Training Centres, has been of the greatest possible help and assistance in this case and has informed me that despite the appellant's past record, he is prepared to give him a chance and to take him into a training centre. I have no doubt whatsoever that in the appellant's own interests it is not desirable that he should remain in prison serving the present sentence of 16 months imposed upon him if he can be sent to a training centre. 6. Accordingly, I allow this appeal to the extent that the ...(illegible) 16 months' imprisonment is set aside and in lieu thereof I direct that under section 4 of the Training Centres Ordinance, the appellant be detained in a training centre for a period not extending beyond three years. Representation: Appellant in person. Corcoran, S.C.C. for Crown/Respondent. |