HKSAR v. Tsui Ho

DCCC 140/2013

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO 140 OF 2013

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.Defendant, I convicted you after trial of an offence of wounding with intent, contrary to section 17(a) of the Offences Against the Person Ordinance.

2.I had found that on 8 August 2012 at some time around 9 pm at the Tin Tsz Shopping Centre in Tin Shui Wai, you and a group of other boys had attacked the victim of this case, a young man by the name of Lai Cheuk-hong, aged 17.  You were the principal attacker who had used a skateboard to clobber the victim on his head. 

3.On the first bash, it was fairly hard.  It caused immediate bleeding. Thereafter, I had found that when the victim eventually collapsed and became unconscious, you continued to hit him on the head for over six-odd times or so.  

4.As I mentioned in my reasons for verdict, this caused him very, very severe and serious head injuries.  The victim had to have an emergency operation for craniotomy, clot evaluation and EVD.  He had blood transfusions for the loss of blood and he was in post-operative intensive care with close neural observation. 

5.After seven days he was transferred to the general ward and received various other treatments.  He was discharged after 13 days.  His left eye was a little blurry. 

6.He is still receiving treatment now, almost a year after your severe assault on him.

7.As can be heard from the victims evidence, he is now terrified of leaving his house alone for fear of being beaten up by people like you.  He stays at home for 90 per cent of the time because of this and when he does leave home, he leaves home with his mother, purely for medical treatment.

8.You too are a boy who is only 17 years and 3 months and are of clear record.  However, you have had a superintendent’s warning in 2010, some 3 years ago, for theft of a bicycle.

9.Mr Oliver Davies, your counsel, has urged me to consider sentencing you to a training centre.

10.I have taken into account the mitigation that he has said and the letters that you and your mother have written to me.

11.In the training centre report, as Mr Davies points out, you did eventually accept your responsibility and admitted to the commission of this offence.  This admission has come very late in the day.  The trial proceeded by calling three witnesses and was solidly fought until the very end.

12.Mr Davies has told me that this is genuine remorse. You did not realise the seriousness until the end of this matter.  He points out that you have realised your wrongdoing and you are not a man of violence.

13.I accept that in this case your group and the victim’s group were meeting to have a fight.  There was, in this case, no proof of triad matters, but there was mention of “big brothers” in this case. 

14.You left school in 2011 and up until the date of commission of the offence, even today, you have done nothing with your life.  You worked for approximately a month in 2012 as a warehouse worker but quit as you were lazy. 

15.It is not surprising that a boy lying idle with nothing to do, have associated yourself with undesirable peers. During this time your mother has assisted you with livelihood and as a result you went wayward.  Sooner or later, as you did not have a decent job nor work for a living, you would, it appear end up committing an offence.  You toyed with drugs and you had late nights at the park and were expelled from school.

16.As I said to Mr Davies during his mitigation, I have given much anxious consideration to this case.  Mr Davies persuaded me to call for a training centre report, at that time I indicated to you when I adjourned for sentence that I considered that this was an extremely serious offence. 

17.An adult would be looking at a lengthy jail term. What is of a most aggravating factor here is that the victim you assaulted was unarmed, it was unprovoked moreover when he was unconscious, you continued to use your skateboard to smash his head.  This was a brutally vicious attack on a defenceless boy who was at that time unconscious and bleeding profusely. 

18.I cannot see any remorse.  If there was remorse, you would have pleaded at the outset.  You had not.

19.It is very easy at the end of the day for Mr Davies to say, “Well, he’s remorseful now as he has been convicted.”  I do not accept that you have any remorse, if you have, it has come far, far too late in the day to warrant any discount or leniency.

20.This was a group attack on a single boy.  He was defenceless on the ground.  You were the principal offender.

21.Even if you were not a man of violence, you have shown yourself to be a man prone to extreme violence.  This boy could have died from his injuries.  It is perhaps most fortunate he did not.  He has suffered and is suffering tremendously from your brutal attack. 

22.Although you are a young man I cannot see that a training centre is suitable for you or that the gravity of this offence warrants a training centre order.  It is far too serious.

23.I have borne in mind you are a young man with a clear record and are 17 years of age.  I have said I have given anxious consideration to this sentence however what I must consider is what is the most appropriate sentence for this type of offence given the factors and aggravating factors involved in the commission of this offence.

24.The usual range for wounding with intent is between 3 and 12 years’ imprisonment. There are no tariffs. You had hit this boy on the head, which is the most delicate and sensitive part of one’s body, approximately 10 times.

25.I think it would not be wrong if I took a starting point of 6 years’ imprisonment after trial.

26.However, you are a young man of 17 years of age.  It is not to say that a young man gets any discount, but I must consider all the circumstances in this case, including your clear record.

27.In those circumstances, defendant, I consider an appropriate sentence to pass upon you to be one of 5 years’ imprisonment and you are so sentenced.