134
Monday, 21st August.
IN CRIMINAL JURISDICTION.
BEFORE SIR F. T. PIGGOTT (CHIEF JUSTICE).
ROBBERY WITH VIOLENCE.
Ngan Po and Chan Sui Po were charged with that they did assault Cheng Ying Cheong at Pokfulam Road on the 11th July, and further that while putting the said Cheng Ying Cheong in bodily fear and danger of his life, they together feloniously did steal the sum of 849 in silver, one watch and chain, one Langle. one knife and one pair of shoes.
Prisoners pleaded not guilty, and the following jury was empanelled:-J.J. Stubbins (foreman). B. Buxtoa, C. Heywood, N. J. Stabb, W. Schmidt, A. E. Slaney and H. Rapp,
Sir H. S. Berkeley, Attorney General, pros- ecuted, and the prisoners were un lefended.
The Attorney-General -This is a very short and simple case, gentlemen. The prisoners are charged with having robbed with violence a shroff name I Cheng Ying Cheong as he was returning home from Hongkong along the Pokfulam Road. It seems that the prisoners with other men met this ma on the road, and one of them stopped him and asked him the time. Another mau seizd him by the neck while the others relieved him of $40 and other things he had in his pockets. He identified one of his assailints. Until today the prisoners all along admitted the charge made against them on their being arrested, making various excuses for their conduct. Before the Magis- trate they admitted being present and receiving portion of the proc eds of the robbery.
After the evid nce had been heard His Lordship reviewed same, and the jury, without retiring, found both prisoners guilty.
Asked what they had to say, both prisoners denied having committed the robbery. They happened to be in Pokfulam Road, and there met Au Mo, the man who had robbed the
first shroff, and he gave the
pris -ner $5 and the second 82 to say nothing about the matter.
His Lordship-Prisoners, you are found by the jury guilty, and I have no doubt the verdict is perfectly right and that you were partici- pators in this wilful attack ou the highway. I sentence you both, each to five years penal
servitude.
IN SUMMARY JURISDICTION.
BEFORE MR. A. G. WISE (PUISNE JUDGE).
CHAU CHUK SAM T. TANG FUK.
The plaintiff, who resides at No. 22 Holly wood Road, claimed from the defendant the sam of $500, money which the plaintiff alleged he advanced to the defendant to enable him to meet the amount of his bail in a receat court
саве.
Mr. R. F. C. Master (of Messrs. Johnson, Stokes and Master) appeared for the plaintiff. and Mr. Atkinson (of Messrs. Deacon, Looker and Deacon) represented the defendant.
The defendant denied borrowing the money on his own account. He admitted having received it, but stated that it was to get the plaintiff's son, who was formerly shroff at the Magistracy, out of trouble.
After hearing the evidence His Honour gave judgment for the plaintiff with costs.
Tuesday, 22nd August.
IN SUMMARY JURISDICTION.
BEFORE ME. A. G. WISE (Prisse Jydor).
CHEUNG 80W Ľ, SHUN TAI AND CÒ., LD.
The plaintiff claimed from the defendant company the sum of $168.8 being for damages in respect of injuries caused to the plaintiff's junk, the Yun Hop by the defendant's steam launch the Hoi Ning, in a collision caused by the negligent navigation of the Hoi Ning by the defendants or their servants in Shaukiwan harbour on the 8th July.
Mr. R. F. C. Master (of Messrs. Johnson, Stokes and Master) appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. C. E. H. Beavis (of Messrs. Wilkinson and Grist) represented the defendants.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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Mr. Master stated that on the morning of the 8th ultimo the plaintiff's junk was
the harbour among lying inside
other The defend- junks at the usual anchorge.
launch
was going on its ordinary voyage with passengers. It runs between i Hongkong and Sauchikong. For some reason
anis
or
other while entering the harbour, the launch was travelling at a high rate of speed, and ran into the plaintiff's junk and injured I submit to Your Lordship that her. if 1 make out a prima faci- case that the junk was carrying her right lights, it is for the defeudants
there negligence.
His Honour-I suppose it is a matter lights, is it?
to
prove
that
was
DO
Mr. Beavis-It is a question of lights. Cheung Sow declarel-I am the owner of between the Yun Hop junk. which runs Shaukiwau and Autau. On the 7th July last my junk was lying at anchor at Shaukiwan in the usual auchorage. I intended lying there all night, and put up the usual light about seven o'clock. It was a Chiness ordinary square lamp, and I trimmed it before I hoisted it to the top of the maiumist. I slept on board that night, als two fokis aud a friend. On the morning of the 8th I awoke shortly after four and saw, a steam launch coming towards us. I looked up and saw that my masthead light was burning. Shortly afterwards the steam launch collided with my juuk.
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(August 26, 1905. Prisoner pleaded not guilty, and the follow• G. L. Tomlin ing jury was empane led: (foreman), A. O'D. Gonrdin, C. R. Scott, E. A. Ram, H. W. Robertson, W. J. Saunders and A. Rodgers.
8
on
The Attorney-General-May it please your The Lordship, and gentlemen of the jury. prisoner is, as you have heard, charged with the crime of manslaughter. The name of the person whom the prisoner is accused of having unlawfully killed was one Richard Sampson, who was a gunner in the R.G.A. The death of Sampson took place on the night of thế 17th July, and the injury which caused his death the Crown alleges he received at the hands of the prisoner, such injury being inflicted upon him on the previous evening, the 16th July. The medical evidence I put before you will leave no doubt in your minds that the man Sampson died from a fracture of the skull as the result of a fall. The issue which you will have to determine will be whether that fall was or was not the result of the un- lawful act of the defendant. I will pat in evidence before you a statement voluntarily made by the prisoner--voluntary bat b-lated- in which he admits that he knocked the man Sampson down on Battery Path at half-past twelve or thereabouts on the morning of the 17th ultimo.. It is not quite clear what the defence for the prisoner is, but I gather that they will put forth an bypothesis that though it is true the prisoner knocked the man In cross-examination-My usual anchorage Sampson down. that fall did not cause
the man's skull, but that he at Shaukiwanis between 34 and 49 cheung fracture of
must have subsequently, or did subsequently from the shore. All the other junks carry their
Thore was very little get up, walk a short distance up the path and lights at their masthead. wind on the morning of the collision, which moru-slip and fall. In other words the issue for you ing was clear. Before the collision I saw thestean will be to say did the deceased fracture "his launch between ten and twenty cheuog distant. skull by a slip of the foot, or was it fractured as When she blew her whistle she reduced her the result of a blow received from the prisoner, which blow the prisoner admits knocked deceased speed, and was going very slowly. When first saw her she was going very fast, and down on Battery Path. The prisoner is a native of Hongkong. The deceased was 8 appeared to be making for the wharf to land her
feet 2 inches. passengers.
I shouted to the launch to reduce powerful man standing 6
The 16th July was & Sunday, and her speed when I first saw her. and on of my
that d y deceased had been on duty on the bos- fokis also calle·lout—“ Slow down your engines." He likewise looked up at the lamp. There pital ship Meanee. Witnesses will tell you what deceased was doing from seven o'clock that - was a great number of juuks between min
and the shore. Nobody auswered me from the evening until the time he was last seen alive. At a quarter to nine o'clock he reported himself launch when I shouted. I said nothing to the
ready for patrol duty, which he finished about crew of the launch after the collision, as I was kept busy bailing the water out of my junk: midnight, when he returned at 12.10 a.m. or
thereabout to the Provost prison. had I not done so it would have sunk. The
went out on to Queen's Road, and it is suggested lamp fell from the masthead after the collision.
to my mind by the evidence, and I submit it as the launch struck the ju .k with considerable
will be suggested to your minds, that he was force.
attracted by a couple of girls who passed by the The next time prison the same night.
seen after leaving the Provost deceased was prison was opposite Thomas' Grill Room, where he was seem speaking with a woman named Lilian Desbien. With this woman he appears to have had an altercation, and according
With her at to her evidenc he asked her could he go home with her. and she refused, the time was a friend of her's named Bessie Radcliffe. The latter woman lives with the prisoner in the annexe to Thomas' Grill Room, and Miss Desbien lives at the same annexe. shall prove that these two woman had dined that evening at the Owl Grill Room; that after dining there they went to the Metropole Hotel. getting back to the Owl Grill Room about midnight. Then they took ricshas, and went away as far as Arsanal Street, returning to
Grill Room about 12.30 Thomas' Presumably they were then on their way home. To go
from Arsenal Street to Thomas' Grill Room it is necessary to pass the Provost prison, and it was possibly while passing there that deceased may have seen the girls. It is, I think, quite clear that deceased did accost Desbien and ask her to go with him, and in doing that he was only doing what she invited others to do; it was part of her business. She appears, however, to have resented the invitation, and he appears in the evidence to have taken hold of her ricsha. She says that on refusing to go with her he struck her on the mouth, cutting her lip. Having done that, he turned off and proceeded up Battery Path, leaving the two girls at the foot of the path in their ricshas. It would seem from the evidence that almost immediately after deceased left the girls the prisoner came up in a ricsha and was told by Miss Desbien what had happened. He asked where the soldier
I
His Honour-Did you trim your lamp
Witness-No. between 7 p.m. and Ya.m.?
His Honour -How long will the lamp burn Witness-B-tween teu and eleven hours.
Further evidenca was delivered, after which He said that he His Honour garo his decisiou. did not take into consideration the ordinary rules of the Admiralty, but viewed the questions The point to from the point of Common law. consider was whether the junk carried lights or not. if it did at the time of the collision, the on that poiut. His plaintiff must recover Honour did uat think, however, that the plaintiff had proved that the lamp was alight at the time of the collision, as the people on the junk were asleep. and only woke up when the launch collided. He gare judgment for the defendants with costs:
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Wednesday. 23rd August.
IN CRIMINAL JURISDICTION.
BEFORE SIK F. T. PIGGOTT CHIEF JUSTICER
MANSLAUGHTER.
The trial of Aaron Ellis, tailor's cutter, on
the charge of manslaughter preferred against him in connection with the death of Gunner Sampson, R.G.A., at Battery Path, on the 17th July, was opened.
Sir H. S. Berkeley K.C.. Attorney General, instructed by Mr. F. B. L. Bowley, Crown Solicitor, prosecuted, and Mr. E. H. Sharp, K.C.. instructed by Mr. P. W. Goldring Messrs. Brution, Hett and Goldring) | (of
appeared for the defence. Major Parry, R.G.A., on behalf of the Military watched the case authorities.
He then
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a.m.
Miss