LEE YUNG KAN v. R.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL

1993, No. 686
(Criminal)

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J U D G M E N T

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Litton, J.A. giving the judgment of the court:

1. This is an application for leave to appeal against conviction.

2. The applicant Lee Yung-kan was convicted on 18 November 1993 before a judge and jury on one count of murder, for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. It was admitted as a fact at the trial that the applicant did kill the victim with a knife some time prior to 8 p.m. on 23 December 1992. When the police arrived at the premises at about 9.35 p.m. they found in the corridor a security guard and the victim's daughter whose hands were tied behind her back. When they went into the flat they found the body of the victim on the kitchen floor and the applicant on the bedroom floor next to the bed. The applicant was semi-conscious and was then arrested. A knife was found next to him which was the knife used to kill the victim. The cause of death was a cut wound to the neck and multiple stab wounds to the chest and abdomen.

3. In his statement to the police the applicant said he had brought the knife to the flat in order to use it to threaten the victim because he was afraid she would not be reconciled with him.

4. The only question at the trial was whether the prosecution had proved that the attack was not provoked by the victim. The evidence of provocation was slender to the extreme. It consisted only in what the applicant had told the police in his cautioned statement. The judge gave impeccable directions to the jury on the issue of provocation. On the evidence it is not surprising that the jury rejected the suggestion of provocation and convicted the applicant of murder. There are no grounds of appeal and the application for leave must be dismissed.