270
THE HONG KONG WEEKLY PRESS &
Jury Unable
To
FRESH TRIAL NECESSARY IN MICHAEL PINE MURDER CASE
Lengthy Summing Up By Chief Justice
After deliberating among themselves for
two and a half
hours, the jury failed to arrive at a verdict in the case in which Ng Loi Yuen is charged with the murder of Michael Pine. The jury retired at 12.20 and at 1 o'clock the Chief Justice, His Honour Mr. A. D. A. MacGregor, inquired from the jurors in open Court whether there was any likelihood of their coming to a verdict in the course of the next few minutes. The fore- Iman replying in the negative, the Chief Justice directed that the Registrar should order some tiffin for the jurors, and ad- journed the Court until 2.15 p.m.
The Jurors however, did not come into the Court again until 3.05 p.m., when the foreman announced that the jury found it impossible to agree upon a verdict.
His Lordship: Do you think if you are given further time for consideration the result will be the same?
The Foreman: Yes, my Lord.
His Lordship: You have now away and you see no way out?
The Foreman:
I am afraid so.
been
two-and-a-half hours
His Lordship: I am sure that each of you appreciate how unfortunate such a position is, but as such a position has arisen and persists, I don't think there is anything more we can do.
Jury Exempted For Two
Years
His Lordship then consulted the Assistant Attorney General with regard to the best course to be taken for the re-trial. He said that he was quite prepared to have the case taken next week, if
It
two months' was necessary. since the occurrence and human memory was not always infalible the trial could and the sooner take place the better.
Mr. Fraser agreed with His Lord- ship.
1
His Lordship (To the Jurors). I thank you for your services. shall have to discharge you. It can't be helped. In view of the lengthy trial, I have pleasure in exempting you from further jury service for a period of two years.
The Summing Up.
In the course of his Summing up the Chief Justice said:-
In Hong Kong we are all mem- bers of a very small society and a case such as this, with a consider- abie
and amount of dramatic
interest. arouses an emotional amount of tension and a degree of publicity which is from one point
of view a little quite inevitable.
unfortunate
but
I have no doubt that there must have been many stories and rum- ours and it is likely that some of 1 them have come to your ears. want to ask you most earnestly to do your utmost to forget all that you have heard except what you have heard within the four corners of this court in the last two days. I want you to recall to your minds the terms of the oath which you have taken to return a verici in accordance with the evidence-- nothing else matters. Stories and rumours have nothing to do with your responsible duties.
or
No Racial Conflict Secondly, please put out of your minds entirely any feeling. have been idea that
may aroused or instilled in your minds that there is a racial conflict in this case, or still more, by the fact that the person whom the accused is alleged to have killed, was a lit.
such tle boy. Emotionalism this, though it does credit to the heart of each one of us, has no
as
August 30, 1934
Decide
22
5
Ac-
place in a court of justice. cused is entitled to a fair trial and a just verdict at your hands and there can be no question of sort retaining anything of that any more than in an ordinary case before the court.
what the Thirdly, remember learned Counsel for the accused very properly stressed yesterday. It is a cardinal principle of Bri- tish justice that an accused per- son is innocent until he is found guilty.
It is for the Crown to satisfy you of his guilt and it is their bounden duty to put before you a case which taken as a whole will lead each one of you as rea- sonable men to say: "I have no doubt of his guilt."
The Point At Issue
In this case we have a very curious set of circumstances in that there is alleged by the Crown an action involving five children and it is possible that some of you Look may be inclined to think: what he did to the other children. Accused does not stand before you on a charge of inflicting any in- jury on any child but Michael Fine. The evidence of the other children may be relevant and very cogent but what you have got to get in the forefront of your minds is the treatment he meted out to Michael Pine.
His Lordship then gave a resume of the evidence before the Court. Referring to the depositions of Mrs. Fairburn, he stated that from her evidence it was known that two children were thrown into the nullah. The evidence showed that two children were picked up. "But," he added, "It does not necessarily follow that these were the same two children because as we follow the nullah down stream near the third bridge we find there other people in the were many nullah who had been caught in the torrent and carried down by it."
Dealing with the rescue of the other children and of accused, His Lordship said there was evidence which identified the man who was swept down the nullah and the man who was taken out from just inside the tunnel, who was at present charged be- fore the Court as one and the
same person.
was
a
No Unfair Inference
it His Lordship said significant fact that when accused was being brought out of the nullah he struggled hard. At the hospital he was found to have a slight crack or fracture of a thigh bone and the leg was put into a plaster of Paris splint. On that two prisoners es- the day
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