TNAG-0404-FCO40-450-Review-of-the-death-sentence-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 6

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Mr Stuart

DEATH PENALTY: CHAN HON TONG

Reference.

258

This is the case which the Governor says is a particularly difficult one on which he proposes to take the advice or the Executive Council in.ormally in the first instance early in January, and has asked for our views by the end of the month.

The

It is a very peculiar and very nasty case. accused is an illiterate caretaker/clean r, married with one child. He was found guilty of the brutal killing of a young amah who was killed by manual strangulation but stabbed in the head and throat immediately thereafter. There was no sexual interference. The accused denies the charge, denies any connection with the deceased and has maintained his innonce throughout, even under the influence of a truth drug administered at Sui L.am Psychiatric Centre.

There is no evidence to link the accused with the deceaused and no evidence which put him at the scene of the crime. He himself was a great pains to establish an alibi for a time period later than that at which the mur er took place (although this was later broken by two other witnesses).

The prosecution case rests solely on the evidence from the Government Chemist that certain fibres on the deceased's clothing were identical with those contained in a sweater found in the accused's place of work 26 days after the murder.

On the face of it, if Chan is guilty there are no obvious grounds for a reprieve, except on psychiatric grounds. However, the doctor at Sui Lam could detect no abnormality or psychological disorder in him.

Two small points which occurred to me: there is no mention of finger-prints at the scene of the crime. Despite the fact that it

a very gory murder, and

blood was spattered in the room where the body was found, and blood was found elsewhere in the flat, there were no traces of blood on the clothes belonging to the decessed under examination by the Government Chemist.

The Government Chemists evidence is at Flag H;

The Judge's summing up at Flag I

Р.п. Келеў

P. M. Kelly (Miss)

OD 145177 219242 500M 4/73 GM 3643/2