TNAG-0554-FCO40-649-Review-of-death-sentence-in-Hong-Kong-1975 — Page 152

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Sturgeon of the Triad Society Bureau. Accordingly, I held an 'internal trial', in the absence of the jury, as

to the admissibility of those statements. Twenty-two

..

witnesses were called to give evidence during this 'internal trial'. Having heard the evidence of all the

police officers concerned and the evidence of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th accused, I admitted the cautioned statements

and the statements in answer to the charge as having

been freely and voluntarily made. On the return of the jury the various police officers were cross-examined

afresh on the taking of these statements.

All the three accused with which this Report is

concerned gave evidence on oath before the jury. The 2nd accused was the only accused who gave direct evidence

as to what is alleged to have happened in the deceased's flat on the night in question. The 2nd accused said that

he was asked by the 1st accused to beat up the deceased,

'to teach him a lesson', and also to rob the deceased

so as to throw off suspicion from the 1st accused. The

2nd accused said that the 1st accused promised to pay

$2,000 to have this job done and the 1st accused also

represented that the deceased would have a lot of money in

his flat on the evening in question. The 2nd accused said

he went, at about 7.30 p.m. on the 21st February of last

year, together with the 3rd and 4th accused, to the deceased's

premises to which they gained admission with the assistance

of a woman whose identity was not in dispute during the

trial and who is the mother of the 1st accused and the

widow of the deceased. The 2nd accused said he brought with

him a large knife but that he never intended to use the knife except to threaten the deceased and that he only brought the knife because the 1st accused had informed

him that the deceased was a Chinese boxer.

The following extracts are taken from the 2nd accused's cautioned statement and contain the parts he testified were true: