CRIMINAL CASE NO. 401 OF 2009
COURT: I have to sentence you on your own plea for the offence of manslaughter. You were charged with murder but the prosecution has accepted the plea you tendered today. That plea was tendered on the basis of diminished responsibility.
In the summer of last year, you worked as domestic helper for a lady who lived alone in a flat in Happy Valley. She was 47 years old. On 11 June, you attacked her with a chopper. You inflicted multiple serious chop wounds from which she died. The attack was ferocious and it reflected the fact that, at the time, you were mentally ill; you were suffering from schizophrenia and, at the time of the incident, you were floridly psychotic.
It is inevitable that I make an order under section 45 of the Mental Health Ordinance. I am satisfied that the conditions set out in section 45(1) of that Ordinance are met in your case.
Provision has been made for your treatment at the Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre and I have the necessary reports from suitably qualified psychiatrists. I am of the opinion, as set out in section 45(1)(c), that having regard to all the circumstances, the making of an order under this section is the right way of disposing of the case.
The only issue that I need to deal with is how long the detention under the order should be because the court can make it for a specified term or an unspecified term. If it is made for an unspecified term, your eventual release will depend upon review of your case by the Mental Health Review Tribunal.
The two reports I have from the visiting consultant psychiatrists to Siu Lam both recommend an unspecified period, supporting that opinion by reference to the seriousness of the offence, the persistence of psychotic symptoms for at least 11 months since the onset of treatment, and also the uncertain prognosis.
I have reports which were commissioned on your behalf which Mr Loughran has put before me, one from Dr Peter Yu, who recommended the order last for a year, and one from Dr Sylvia Chen who originally thought five to six years but has come down to three years.
It is the fact that your condition and its prognosis is unpredictable and it is impossible for this court, even helped by the reports, to fix a time, to say by when you should be fit for release. I bear in mind what your own psychiatrists say but, in my judgment, the sensible course is to make the order for an unspecified period because the decision about your eventual release can be made in the light of how you respond and what your condition is at the relevant time.
Accordingly, the order I make is one that you be detained under section 45 of the Mental Health Ordinance for an unspecified period. The place of your detention will be at the Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre.