His Excellency the Governor,
Hong Kong.
ANNEX
A
10 XCR(71)
189
14th February, 1977
Report to His Excellency the Governor in respect of Criminal Case No. 52 of 1976
R v George William Puttock and
Donald David Bassett
Men det var ju Anda mentenan TANISA
On the 30th July 1976, the two accused were convicted of the
murder of one Mr. NG Fai by the jury after deliberating for nearly
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seven hours. Both accused were sentenced to death. Their appeal against
conviction was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on 10th February 1977.
·
In my summing-up I directed the jury on the difference between
murder and manslaughter. I also explained to the jury that if two or
more persons set out to attack another person with the common intention
to cause grievous bodily harm or death and the victim died as result of
the attack, then every person who shared the common intention and
participated in the attack would be guilty of murder, even if he did
not inflict the fatal blow. The accused raised the defences of
provocation, self-defence and intoxication, all of which I also explained
to the jury in my` summing-up. On the issue of intoxication I said that
if an accused's intoxication affected his mind in such a way that he was
unable to form the specific intent to kill or cause serious injury, then the
killing being in itself an unlawful and dangerous act, that killing would
be manslaughter because no specific intent is required for the offence