1_KK_14/11/6
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
Reference.....
4 MAY 1973
First woman sentenced to death
since war
By JUDY LEUNG
A woman was sentenced to death in the Supreme Court yesterday for murder. It is believed to be the first post-war death penalty passed on a woman in Hongkong.
The woman, Wan Mui-mui (33), who took part in the brutal beating of a man until he died, because he had cheated a call-girl racket of $2,000, was found guilty of murder by a Criminal Sessions jury.
Four men, Chau Cheuk-yin (20), Lai Fai (29), Liu Siu-shum (22), and Ho Man-wai (17), were also found guilty of murder.
Mr Commissioner Baber sentenced Wan, Chau, Lai and Liu to death and remanded Ho in custody pending Her Majesty's pleasure because of his age.
Whether the death sentence on the woman will stand is still a matter to be decided by the Full Court. Her counsel, Mr Lawrence Leong, said she would lodge an appeal against the conviction.
Wan, who operated a brothel, wept when Mr Commissioner Baber passed the death sentence on her.
Community leaders and members of the legal profession reacted with mixed feelings when asked for their views on the death sentence for women.
Mr Peter C. K. Chan, a barrister and Urban Councillor, said both men and women should be equal before the law.
"If people argue that the fixed penalty, that is death, should be applied to men and not to women, I think women should be the first to fight against it,
"I think women, in many cases, have been fighting for equality and this is the right time to do it." he said.
Mr John Rear, Editor of the Hongkong Law Journal, said, "Personally, I am against the death penalty, but if it is to be applied it should be applied equally to men and women."
Mr Ho Kwok-sing, an old Hongkong resident, recalled a case in 1941 when a woman was hanged for the murder of her husband's concubine and her son.
"The woman was taken to court for trial and the case stirred up the community then. That was the only case of a death sentence on a woman I can recall,” said Mr Ho. He is 90.
According to law reports, the last case of a woman being sentenced to death in England was in the late 1950s. She was convicted of shooting her boy-friend.
?
The jury found Wan guilty after deliberating for three hours and 15 minutes.
She and the other defendants had pleaded not guilty to murdering Chan and causing another man. Yeung Ling- shing, grievous bodily harm with intent.
The jury found them guilty of the murder charge, as well as of a lesser charge of inflicting bodily harm on Yeung but without intent.
The evidence was that on May 22, last year, the deceased. Yeung and a girl, Pang Po- chun, decided to commit a fraud. The girl was to be introduced to a call girl racket for a fee of $2.000. After obtaining the money she was to run away.
Later that day, negotiations were made with a person called Húk Chai, who agreed to pay $2,000 for the girl as an advance. On the following day the girl was taken by Yeung to the brothel operated by Wan.
The girl subsequently ran away, and on May 24, about 9.10 pm, a group of men went to the Hollywood Theatre where Yeung worked as an usher and took him to a building in Yaumati where he was beaten up. He was then told to contact Chan.
In a flat in Wanchai, Chan was beaten up by the defendants. His body was wrapped in towelling material and dumped on a hillside in Deep Water Bay Road. The body was discovered on May 25 by a pedestrian.
Mr D.
Goodbody represented Chau. Lai and Ho on the instructions of A. Lau and Co.
Mr Leong represented Wan on the instructions of Sousae and Co.
Mr H. Y. Leung represented Liu on the instructions of H. C. K. Tung and Co.
Min Kelly.
M. Wilfre Mo Watts, Legal
R.A
Camsellv
& see.
12.1. hove 9/5
M. Jest
5
with
mire.
I not to be
sentenced Deck
because he is
only 17
ARV
3 400m 1/73 G.W.B.Ltd. Gp.863