HKSAR v. WONG TAT BONG

DCCC246/2011

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 246 OF 2011

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Reasons for Sentence

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1.  Defendant, you pleaded guilty to an offence of common assault, contrary to section 40 of the Offences against the Persons Ordinance.

2.  You have admitted that on 14 January 2011 at the park outside Kwai Tak House, Kwai Fong Estate, Kwai Chung, New Territories, you assaulted Lo Yun-cheung.

3.  On that day at about 12.30 am, in the early hours of the morning, you had a heated exchange and assaulted the victim on his head by punching him.  A victim made a report to the police.  He was found to have tenderness on his face, chest wall, redness on his forehead and epistaxis.

4.  You are aged 47 and have 8 previous convictions. The majority of them are for possession of dangerous drugs and/or gambling.  Your last conviction was in 2003, which was a gambling offence.

5.  Your counsel, Ms Eliza Yiu, has made very full and thorough mitigation on your behalf which I have taken into account in considering what is the most appropriate sentence.    

6.  The reason that you assaulted the victim was because he was using insulting words and swearing at you after you both had an evening together.  The victim was drunk, you had not been able to restrain yourself therefore you assaulted him.

7.  I am inform by Ms Yiu that the victim also says he was assaulted by another person and for that reason, it is Ms Yiu’s submission that only the injury on the victim’s head was caused by you whilst the other injuries found on the victim may have been caused by him falling onto the ground after the struggle and/or by the other person who assaulted him.

8.  Ms Yiu has given me the background of this offence as to how and why you were originally charged with assault with intent to rob.  It appears that the victim had originally given a statement to the police saying the matter was much more serious than it was and that he was unable to identify the culprit. In fact this was not correct.  It was submitted that the victim said he did know who the culprit was.   You were his friend and he knew it was you.  He later withdrew any allegations of assault with intent to rob.  For that reason the prosecution accepted the lesser charge of common assault.

9.  I fully accept Ms Yiu’s mitigation.  Her submissions are that given the inconsistent statements made by the victim, the assault happened as a result of the victim being very drunk (after having drunk some 8 cans of beers and two glasses of jiang sum wine,) the victim had lost control of himself and because of that you assaulted him.

10.  Those are the facts to which you will be sentenced upon.  The offence is minor and should have been heard in the magistracy.  However, you clearly have admitted your wrongdoing through your plea of guilty.  It shows me your remorse and in all the circumstances, defendant, you should be fined $1,500.