TNAG-0554-FCO40-649-Review-of-death-sentence-in-Hong-Kong-1975 — Page 119

Name

MAN Kam-tong

SOCIAL ENQUIRY ON

CONDEMNED PRISONER

Religion:

Nil.

Native Place: Wai Cha , Kwangtung Province, China.

Place of Birth: Hong Kong

Age:

22(According to his Hong Kong identity card No. E418474, he was

born on 6.2.1952)

A.

GENERAL INFORMATION

The Prisoner was brought up in a poor family with his late father formerly a labourer with a Hong Kong Government Department. He ranks 5th among six siblings. Both parents were illiterate. The family was living at the Hing Wah Resettlement Area before they moved to their present low cost housing cubicles in 1964. The Prisoner was offered education in Chai Wan but his academic performance was below average. He had repeated once in primary three and had changed his schools thrice before he attained primary five. He had limited interest in studies only and had often played truant, for which he was frequently blamed by his family members. He eventually dropped his schooling of his own accord by the age of thirteen. Two years later, his father died in hospital.

After he ceased studies, he firstly learned electric work for a month and then changed to serve apprenticeship in interior decoration and painting. He became a skilled painter four years later in 1970. Since then, he worked as a painter for various sub-contractors and was able to earn about $1,000 per month.

In March, 1973, he got married and soon had a daughter. After his marriage, he remained living at Valley Road Estate with his mother living next-door. He began to work as a sub-contractor for himself and his income became irregular, depending tremendously on the amount of work available. His wife stayed at home as a baby-sitter and the Prisoner had to support his own family single-handed. It was said that in the months prior to the offence, the Prisoner had little work to do and the family was thus under financial strain.

Among the other condemned prisoners in this case, two are his brothers. He knew the others either in the playground or in his vicinity of Valley Road Estate.

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