COURT: Mak Chun-man, you have pleaded guilty in the Magistrates Court to two offences, robbery under the 1st charge, and indecent assault under the 2nd charge. You have been committed to this court, the High Court, for sentence.
I have taken into account everything said by your counsel on your behalf. The circumstances of the two offences for which I am now sentencing you are set out in the Summary of Facts which you have admitted. They were committed against the same victim and on the same occasion. That was on 16 April 2012.
You were released from prison earlier that month after having served a total sentence of 5 years’ imprisonment passed on you in February 2009 for two offences of indecent assault. The first time you were sentenced for indecent assault was in January 2002 when you were put on probation for a period of 24 months. Within that period, you re-offended. In July that year, 2002, you were sentenced to detention in a training centre for two offences, one of indecent assault and the other of breach of a probation order.
Then in September, still in 2002, you were sentenced for another indecent assault to a concurrent term of detention in a training centre. In June 2004, you were again sentenced to detention in a training centre for indecent assault. Then in October 2006, you were yet again sentenced to detention in a training centre, this time for loitering. I have already referred to the total sentence of 5 years’ imprisonment passed on you in February 2009 for two offences of indecent assault.
Two psychiatric reports on you have been placed before me. Both psychiatrists have reported that you are fit to plead. In paragraph 7 of his report, Dr Choi Wing-kit says this:
“In my opinion, Mak has been problematic since childhood, and his main problem now is the long history of sexual deviancy and the escalated tendency of using violence and forces in his offences. Despite vigorous treatment given by psychiatrists and psychologists in the past 10 years, he showed limited improvement. The prognosis is guarded, and his risk of reoffending is high. It is unlikely that he would benefit from inpatient treatment under Hospital Order. However, he should be closely monitored by mental health professionals in the years to come.”
The other psychiatrist, Dr Oliver Chan, says this in paragraph 8 of his report:
“Mak had longstanding problems of sexual deviancy, with concurrent personality problem. His hyper-sexuality has repeatedly caused him to have brushes with the legal system, and the severity of his behaviour has increased over the years. Although in-patient psychiatric treatment is not indicated for mere sexual deviancy, his problems could be addressed on out-patient basis, that androgen reduction therapy could be useful in lowering his sexual drive and as an adjunct to the psychological treatment. He is fit to plead and to serve any sentence that the court deems appropriate.”
It appears that you have been getting increasingly dangerous and that there is a high risk that you will re-offend. In sentencing you, the court is primarily concerned with protecting the public.
The maximum penalty for indecent assault is 10 years’ imprisonment, while the maximum penalty for robbery is life imprisonment. In HKSAR v Chan Pui Chi [1999] 2 HKLRD 830 at page 834A to B, the Court of Appeal referred to the general rule that re-offending in the same or a similar way may aggravate the offence, at least as far as sentence is concerned. The Court of Appeal continued by saying:
“This will have the result that the starting point which would have been adopted for a man of good character will sometimes need to be increased to take into account the aggravating features of persistence` and the failure of previous sentences to deter on the one hand and the court’s duty to protect the public on the other.”
That approach applies in the present case. All things considered, I will adopt a starting point of 9 years’ imprisonment for each offence, give you a one-third discount for your pleas of guilty, to arrive at a sentence of 6 years’ imprisonment on each charge and make these sentences concurrent. I sentence you to 6 years’ imprisonment.
It is to be hoped, for your sake and the sake of the public, that you will receive and benefit from treatment in prison and as may be appropriate after your release from prison too.