R. v. NG CHUN MING

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF HONG KONG

(Appellate Jurisdiction)

MAGISTRACY APPEAL NO.910 OF 1995

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J U D G M E N T

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1. This was an appeal against convictions for criminal intimidation and doing an act tending and intended to pervert the course of public justice. It was also an appeal against the sentences therefor, which were 12 months and 18 months respectively, ordered to be served consecutively.

2. Suffice it to say that I found no merit in the grounds of appeal against conviction and dismissed that appeal.

3. However, so far as the sentence was concerned, it was my view that a total sentence of 30 months well exceeded the criminality in this case. These were low grade, and low key, attempts by the appellant to persuade the victim in this case, who was to be a witness against him in a District Court trial, not to give evidence against him. It is, of course, always a serious matter when anyone interferes with a witness or with the evidence in a criminal trial. However, there are degrees of seriousness. It was my view that the instant case fell very much into the lower range of seriousness. I felt that a sentence of 6 months for each offence was a sufficient punishment in this case. Naturally as the two offences were separate transactions, the sentences had to be ordered to be served consecutively. Therefore the total sentence is now 12 months. The appeal is allowed accordingly.