TNAG-0555-FCO40-650-Review-of-death-sentence-in-Hong-Kong-1975 — Page 130

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E.

EDUCATION

The Prisoner had studied for five years in the Nim Chee Primary School up to Primary Five. His school work was about average.

left school to earn his own living at the age of thirteen.

He

F. PERSONS INTERVIEWED FOR INFORMATION RELEVANT TO THE

CONDUCT AND CHARACTER OF THE PRISONER

1. Mr. KWOK Choon-fun (Father of the Prisoner)

2.

Mr. Kwok admitted that he could not get on with his .son the Prisoner and that one of the reasons was his own furious temper. He was himself a heavy drinker. The Prisoner was said to have helped a lot in fish-hawking and on this score, Mr. Kwok considered him a "good son". He kept on repeating that he required the assistance of his son in his business. He did appear to be rather disturbed mentally during our interview because of his son's arrest and conviction.

Mrs. KWOK CHAN Yuet-kam (Mother of the Prisoner)

Mrs. Kwok was apparently unaware of the Prisoner's

association with undesirable people, particularly those of the triad society. She alleged that the Prisoner was a filial son, helpful to her in running the fish stall and honest in all aspects. She realised that the Prisoner had a handful of friends with respectable factory jobs and that he often went out to social gatherings such as picnics, campings, dances, football-matches, etc. There was wide gap between the Prisoner and his father, she admitted. But in her opinion, the remedy should be sought on the father's side rather than the Prisoner. She agreed, however, that the Prisoner had been spoilt by his grandmother who was still uninformed about the Prisoner's offence and sentence. The Prisoner was allowed to live with his uncle and grandmother so as to lessen the chances of his conflict with the father. There was apparently nothing positively done to bring about lasting compromise between the Prisoner and his father. Besides the past two occasions when the Prisoner infringed with the law, i.e. in 1961 and 1968, his mother had never received any other complaints from the folks or any body else about the Prisoner's behaviour. She noted that the chance of supervision by a probation officer was granted to the Prisoner in 1968 because he was in need of some control.

3. Master KWOK Ki-wing (Brother of the Prisoner)

This brother had once worked together with the Prisoner in the same garment factory. He said he was sure that the Prisoner was friendly to everybody, perhaps except his father. Indeed, he had the same problem as the Prisoner, and found his father very difficult to get along. The Prisoner seldom broke into uncontrolled temper, according to his observation, but if that was so, it might be only a result of being irritated by the father. He said he did not know that the Prisoner had a close relationship with unlaw- ful societies about which he knew very little until the Prisoner was arrested and convicted. In recent years, i.e. after he was put on supervision, the Prisoner was observed to have changed some of his habits: e.g. he preferred to go to the New Territories and stay there over the week-end while he had formerly spent most of his leisure playing with neighbouring youths near his house.

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