HKSAR v. Lam Ah Wong
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DCCC471/2011 IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION CRIMINAL CASE NO. 471 of 2011 ----------------------
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-------------------------- Reasons for Sentence -------------------------- 1.Defendant, you have pleaded guilty before me today of one charge of wounding with intent contrary to section 17(a) of the Offences against the Person Ordinance Cap.212. 2.You admit that on 25 February at Fung Ning Hostel where you were living in Yuen Long, New Territories, you did unlawfully and maliciously wound Mr Chan Chi-kin with intent to do him grievous bodily harm. Both of you, the victim as well as the defendant, live together in this hostel. It is a private residential care home for persons with disabilities. I have no information as to how long you have both been resident together in this hostel, but it is accepted that there was no history of bad blood between you. In fact, it has been said that you were friends prior to the attack. 3.That evening you have agreed that you approached the victim and he ignored you and asked you to go away. You then took out a pair of scissors and stabbed the victim repeatedly. He was able to run downstairs but you chased him and continued to attack him with the scissors. He tried to defend himself with a wooden rod but in fact you were able to snatch it from him and use it to attack his head and body. 4.A member of the staff at this care home managed to separate you both. When the police arrived you were holding the wooden rod in your hand and sat near the entrance of the home. You were arrested and under caution you did tell the police that you did know it was not good for you to hit others. You said you had done something wrong this time. 5.The victim was taken to hospital in a serious condition. He had a total of 22 stab wounds which clearly required stitching. He remained in intensive care for two days and there after spent some time in a general ward. I have no further information but I assume there are no serious lasting injuries. 6.Mr Mui on your behalf has submitted a written submission for mitigation. You are 55 years old and have been married twice. Unfortunately, your second wife died suddenly in 2007. You from a young age have had a history of substance abuse but when you met and married her you got rid of your heroin addiction. However, when your wife died unexpectedly it caused you great emotional turmoil and you did try and commit suicide on several occasions. You have no other family members to rely on or to support you. 7.In addition to a history of substance abuse you were in the late 1990s diagnosed with a psychiatric problem of dis-social personality disorder and a recurrent depressive disorder, depression. After your wife died and your repeated suicide attempts you were actually hospitalised for a long period of time in 2007 and 2008. When you were discharged and went home your condition deteriorated again. Between July 2008 and March 2009 you were again admitted into inpatient treatment and at about this time you were found to have been abusing soft drugs, in particular Imovane which is a sleeping tablet for insomnia. You were treated and finally discharged in March 2009 where you agreed to live in a private hostel. You received regular psychiatric treatment and your condition remained stable for a period of time. 8.You have told a psychiatrist, Dr Amy Liu who saw you after your arrest, that you did take Imovane on and off but had stopped in August 2010. In late 2010 you were able to find employment as a janitor in a school. For reasons that are not clear you had prior to this offence started to take Imovane again and you have told Dr Liu that on the date of this offence you took up to 10 tablets of Imovane. Then the attack upon the victim happened. 9.I have been told that you are not a man of clear record. You have many previous convictions, only two that relate to violence and they were in 1972 and in 1976 so you are clearly not a man with a violent nature and, in fact, Dr Liu, has whilst writing her report interviewed Mr Ng who was in charge of your hostel that you lived in. He confirmed that you were friends with the victim and that your actions were out of character. You had told him that you quarrelled with the victim about financial matters. 10.Your mitigation today, your plea today is your best mitigation. I do not intend to call for any further psychiatric reports. Dr Liu was of the opinion back in March that it was not necessary to consider inpatient psychiatric treatment but that you should receive further outpatient treatment. I am sure a hospital order would not be an appropriate sentence here. 11.The only appropriate sentence, in my view, is a term of imprisonment. Mr Mui has very helpfully provided me with several authorities that demonstrate different varying cases of wounding, some more serious than others, to demonstrate that there is no tariff guideline for wounding. 12.I have considered your background, your mitigation, the injuries sustained by the victim. They were serious. I would not go as far as saying that he received life-threatening injuries. I will also take into account and accept that you acted out of character. 13.After considering all the above factors, I will take a starting point of 3 years’ imprisonment. Because you have pleaded - please stand up - you will be entitled to a discount of one-third which will be a discount of one year. 14.For this offence you are sentenced to 2 years’ imprisonment. Do you understand that sentence? DEFENDANT: Yes. COURT: And I will give a direction that you receive psychiatric treatment if required. Do you understand? DEFENDANT: Yes. COURT: Have a seat, please.
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