Yip Yun-tin v. The Queen
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CACC000903/1974 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF HONG KONG (APPELLATE JURISDICTION) CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 903 OF 1974 -----------------
----------------- Coram: McMullin J. in Court. Date of Judgment: 7th November, 1974. ----------------- JUDGMENT ----------------- 1. The appellant was convicted on his own plea upon a charge of being a member of a triad society and was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment. He appealed against this sentence but upon the hearing of the appeal he protested that he had never admitted to being a member, saying that he never had undergone any ceremony of initiation or taken part in any activities although he admitted having paid money to a "protector" who was a member of the Wo Shing Wo Society. Had the plea manifestly been an unequivocal plea of guilty I should have seen no reason to interfere. However the magistrate's note of the appellant's plea to the charge is as follows: "Defendant: Beaten to join" . I can only interpret this as meaning that the defendant was asserting that he was forced to join the society. Had there been in the agreed statement of facts any indication of active participation in triad activities (other than the capacity to give a recitation of ritual poems etc. ) that might have been a form of "confession and avoidance" too insubstantial to be regarded as sufficient to dilute his plea-though even then I doubt if it would have been safe to accept what he said as an unequivocal plea of guilty. In the actual circumstances disclosed it clearly should not have been accepted as such. At the very least that allegation required investigation before proceeding to sentence. The appellant's present denial of having pleaded guilty at all perplexes the matter further. I think the safest course will be to order that the conviction be set aside and the appellant remanded forthwith to the magistrates court for the taking of a fresh plea. And it is so ordered.
Representation: Appellant in person. Mr. Stapp, C.C., for the Crown/respondent. |