CRIMINAL CASE NO. 252 OF 2012
COURT: The defendant has pleaded guilty to five charges. The first four were robberies and the last one was indecent assault. The defendant admitted the Summary of Facts.
To put it simply, what happened was that for the first three robberies, they took place in the same shop on different days, in the On Ting Shopping Centre, Tuen Mun. The defendant would go inside the shop, reveal a knife or acted as if he had a knife on him. He then declared robbery. After that, he would take the property and flee.
According to his own later admission, he would go to China to hide after each robbery.
Then on 13 August 2008, the defendant went to Shop 38 of Man Bo Building, also in Tuen Mun. Then he rushed into the shop with a knife and asked the woman shopkeeper for money. After that, he pointed the knife at the woman and ordered her to take off her clothes. He then forced the woman to commit fellatio on him. He also fondled her breast and vagina. He subsequently ejaculated and left with some cash and other property.
A report was made and based on the DNA evidence and the woman’s identification, the police managed to trace and arrest the defendant. The defendant later admitted these offences, under caution.
The defendant is 36 years of age and has a number of previous convictions including rape, offensive weapon and robbery. The last conviction in Hong Kong took place in 2005 where he was sentenced to 4 years’ imprisonment.
In view of the nature of the offences and the record, I have first obtained the psychologist and psychiatric reports for reference. The psychiatric report stated that the defendant did not suffer from any psychotic symptoms or cognitive deficit. The psychologist, however, considered the defendant to have psychopathic personality problems.
Counsel for the defendant has asked this court to be lenient with the defendant. It was said that the defendant was truly remorseful and he wished to spend more time with his daughter.
I am grateful to the prosecution for providing this court with the record of two previous cases which were committed by the defendant. Those background material tend to support, in my view, the psychologist’s comments that the defendant has traits of deceitfulness, impassivity and irresponsibility. I also note the psychologist’s assessment that the risk of re-offending was high.
Looking at the defendant’s background and the circumstances of these offences, which clearly involved a degree of pre-planning, I have to say that the defendant has become a nuisance to society and, more so, a danger to women. He will target them as victims for both money and sexual attack. If the defendant wishes ever to return to normal social life, although late already, in my view, he must now seize the opportunity for comprehensive counselling and treatment or else he will spend most of his life behind bars.
I am also grateful to Mr Kwan for bringing my attention to the related authorities. The most relevant one is, of course, Mo Kwong Sang which stated the general guidelines in these offences - I mean the offence of robbery, of course. I have also read the cases of Tseung Mang Ka and Au Yeung Siu Kay.
Having considered all the circumstances in the present case, I have decided that for each robbery offence, I would adopt the starting point of 6 years. I would grant the usual one-third discount for the plea, so it is 4 years each. For the indecent assault offence, I would adopt 3 years as the starting point and reduce it to 2 for the plea.
Having further considered the issue of totality, I shall make the following order: 1 year from each of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th charges is to run consecutively to the 1st charge. That makes it 7 years. As to the 2 years from the 5th charge, I shall order it to run consecutively to the 7 years. Hence the total sentence is 9 years.