TNAG-0554-FCO40-649-Review-of-death-sentence-in-Hong-Kong-1975 — Page 151

-

3

up to the deceased's premises 'with persons unknown to the 3rd accused' and that 'there had been a struggle and a stabbing done but that he did not know the deceased had died'. The 2nd accused, on the other hand, testified that the 3rd and 4th accused told him that they had stabbed the deceased.

The deceased sustained six stab wounds in the chest of which five were tri-radiate stab wounds which the forensic pathologist said were consistent with having been inflicted by a triangular scraper and one stab wound which was consistent with having been caused by a sharp double-bladed knife. The forensic pathologist said that one of the stab wounds below the left nipple penetrated the chest cavity and then through the diaphragm causing a wound over the front of the stomach. He said that two stab wounds at the corner of the left chest cage penetrated the diaphragm, the liver and the front of the stomach. He said the cause of death was shock and

haemorrhage from multiple stab wounds of the chest.

The forensic pathologist also examined the four accused several hours after they alleged they were beaten up and they appeared to him to be normal and well composed. He found no external injury on any of the accused.

The 2nd, 3rd and 4th accused, with which this Report

is concerned, made cautioned statements to the police and also

made statements in answer to the charge. All these statements implicated, or tended to implicate, the makers thereof in the killing of the deceased. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th accused challenged the voluntariness of their statements. In addition,

all these three accused testified that they were arrested not

at 3.10 a.m. on the 25th March as alleged by the police but

at about 2.00 a.m. and furthermore, that the cautioned

statements which they made were not made at the times recorded

in the notebooks of the police officers concerned but were made,

in the case of the 2nd and 3rd accused, much later that day.

These three accused alleged that the statements they made to

the police were extracted from them by various forms of threats and brutality. All the accused also challenged the

voluntariness of the statements they made in answer to the

charge in the presence of Inspector Lau and Superintendent