COURT: Lorna Otieno, the evil of the international trade in dangerous drugs is well known throughout the world, and I do not propose to say any more about it. You will be well aware of what you willingly got yourself into. I have to take into account when I consider your sentence that you knowingly and willingly lent your assistance to this very filthy trade.
Aggravating your offence so far as the courts of Hong Kong are concerned is the fact that you attempted to smuggle a quite significant quantity of heroin into Hong Kong, I have no doubt that that heroin was intended by those who you worked for to be passed on to the mainland, into the People’s Republic of China.
The courts in Hong Kong are not going to permit Hong Kong to gain the reputation of being a distribution centre for dangerous drugs of any kind within greater China.
I am aware that you are of a clear record. You have no criminal convictions recorded against you, but quite frankly, the lack of a criminal record is not a significant mitigating factor in a case of international drug smuggling of this type.
I have no reason to doubt anything that your counsel, Mr Geoffrey Chang, has very eloquently said on your behalf.
I readily accept that your family history has been one of tragedy. It is to your credit that you have reached the age you have of 45 and been able up to now to support two children - who, from what I am told, are obviously intelligent young people - to support them and educate them, and it is all the more sad that you fell into temptation by undertaking this enterprise of bringing this quantity of heroin into Hong Kong.
I am certainly not unsympathetic with your family circumstances, but I have to bear in mind that throughout Africa, not only in Kenya but in many other countries, and not only in Africa, but throughout the world, there are many thousands or millions of people whose family circumstances, whose family background, is just as unhappy and as difficult as yours is, and yet those people do not resort to trafficking in dangerous drugs to alleviate their economic misfortunes.
Your most powerful mitigation is the fact that you have pleaded guilty, and you have pleaded guilty at a very early stage in the formal criminal proceedings against you. A plea of guilty by a defendant indicates realism, and realism in itself is an indication of genuine remorse.It is well accepted in the courts of Hong Kong that people who plead guilty, who admit their guilt, who co-operate with the authorities, will receive a significant reduction in sentence from the sentence they would have received had they been found guilty after a trial.
Mr Chang has told you - I know this, because he has told me that he has so advised you - that there are very clear guidelines laid down by the Court of Appeal of Hong Kong for all judges as to how we should sentence people who traffic in dangerous drugs. Those guidelines are well known, and it is well accepted that judges must follow them unless there are very good reasons for them not to do so. I have to tell you there are no such very good reasons in your case.
I have to tell you that had you pleaded not guilty, had this matter come for trial in the High Court before a jury, and had a jury found you guilty, then following those guidelines, given that I am dealing with a case where you smuggled 489.65 grammes of heroin, active heroin, contained in a mixture weighing 1.2 kilograms, into Hong Kong, that I would have had in mind just for the trafficking offence itself a sentence of 17 years’ imprisonment, and to that, again following the guidelines set by the Court of Appeal, I would have had to add an extra 1 year to reflect the fact that you smuggled, or attempted to smuggle this drug into Hong Kong, that is to reflect the international aspect of this case, which would have meant that after trial, your sentence would have been one of 18 years’ imprisonment.
Because of your plea of guilty, because of your realism, I am permitted to reduce your sentence very significantly; in fact, by as much as one-third, and therefore, the sentence that I pass on you in respect of your offence of trafficking in a dangerous drug is one of 12 years’ imprisonment.
You will be informed by the Correctional Service Department officials of the date from which your sentence is to start, and they will in due course inform you of the earliest date which, under their procedures and Hong Kong law, you can expect to be released from prison.