HKSAR v. Khan Safian

DCCC 280/2013

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO 280 OF 2013

----------------------

---------------------

Reasons for Sentence

---------------------

1.Khan Safian, you have been convicted on your own plea of the offence of robbery.

2.The robbery took place in the early hours of 10 January this year.

3.A 16-year-old schoolboy, who had an evening job at a branch of McDonald’s, had left Tai Wo Hau MTR station and was walking across Kwok Shui Road Park on his way home.  As he was walking along, he was operating his Samsung Galaxy mobile phone.

4.You were in the park at the time with four other South Asian males.  You and at least one of your companions approached the schoolboy quickly.  Your companion grabbed the victim’s hand while you pushed him on the shoulder, as a result of which he fell to the ground dropping his phone.

5.You picked up his phone and started to run towards Tai Wo Hau MTR station.

6.During the trial of your co-defendants I have heard evidence that others in your group prevented the victim chasing after you and that the victim was further assaulted.

7.I accept that those activities by the other defendants, other than the man that first joined you in approaching the victim, were done after you had started to run away and that you had nothing to do with it.

8.Less than 20 minutes after the robbery the police found you and your companions in a playground at Kwong Fai Circuit.  The victim’s phone was found in the pocket of one of your companions.

9.It appears that you immediately admitted your involvement in the robbery and led the police back to Tai Wo Hau MTR station where you pointed out to them where you had discarded the SIM card from the mobile phone.

10.At the time of this offence you were significantly younger than your companions.  It was less than a month since your 16th birthday.

11.Robbery is normally an offence that calls for an immediate term of imprisonment.  But in view of your age, I called for reports as to your suitability for training centre, detention centre and rehabilitation centre.

12.Those reports have been very helpful.  It is apparent that you come from a caring family, but that after you came to Hong Kong from Pakistan in 2005 you found it difficult to catch up at school and performed poorly there.  You finally dropped out of school in 2011.

13.More seriously, it is apparent that you began to associate with the wrong sort of companion and you have been in trouble with the law twice before.  On each of those two occasions you were fortunate enough not to be prosecuted, but received a superintendent’s warning.

14.I bear in mind that the offence of which you have pleaded guilty did not involve the use of a weapon.  It was, however, serious.  It involved an attack on a 16-year-old boy, who was on his way home in the middle of the night.  Although he was of a similar age to you, he was of slighter build than you and his appearance was less mature.

15.I take into account that your role was limited to pushing him, which caused him to drop the phone and you took advantage of that to grab his phone.

16.Any further violence against him was committed by others so that you could get away.

17.Normally, if you had been an adult, a significant term of imprisonment would be appropriate.  The reports that I have obtained indicate that you are unsuitable for detention centre.  That is a course I would have otherwise thought most fitting for this offence.  I have, therefore, to consider whether I should pass a sentence of detention in a training centre or rehabilitation centre.

18.Considering that matter, I  have into account the letter that I have received from the social worker, Miss Mok, that has been given to me by Mr Hemmings, and her description of your involvement in the activities of her centre.

19.The reporting officer of the Correctional Services Department states that based on your behaviour and attitude on remand he considers that the most suitable option for you would be a rehabilitation centre.  He describes you as being cooperative and polite throughout the interview that he had with you and he said that you showed a great sense of remorse.

20.In the light of the officer’s comments about your attitude, and his recommendation, and despite the gravity of the offence, I am, with some hesitation, prepared to follow his recommendation.

21.In deciding to follow that course I have also been influenced by your plea of guilty, your young age, the real possibility that you were influenced by your older co-defendants and the fact that you have already spent almost seven-and-a-half months in custody.

22.The sentence of detention in a rehabilitation centre will result in your detention for a further three to nine months, followed by supervision for a further year.

23.I hope the consequences of what you did on 10 January will bring home to you the need to make a new start in life and that this will be the last occasion you come before a court.

24.I sentence you to detention in a rehabilitation centre.