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17 In June 1979, the SIU was down to Quinn and a number of rank and file, and on two occasions Quinn was himsen attached to other duties. During the period while the five files were with the Legal Department and the staff were detached to duties outside the SIU, those left behind continued to go out to homosexual haunts for intelligence purposes.
18.
Then Quinn went into hospital from mid to late July, 1979.
C. PROSECUTION POLICY2
19.
Before the Duffy case, there was no prosecution policy for homosexual offences as such. These were dealt with as any other crimes in the normal way, including homosexual offences by consenting adults.3
20. The decision after the Duffy case to accord priority to the investigation of procuration and abuse of youths met with the approval of the Acting Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Mr. Macdougall (as he then was, now Mr. Justice Macdougall), but there was never any suggestion that any homosexual offence was not to be prosecuted.
21. In the summer of 1979, just after the arrival of a petition by Mr. Duffy to the Governor (see below) the Attorney General asked the DPP what the policy was regarding homosexual offences and the DPP told him there was no policy and in fact homosexual offences were very rare. The Attorney General then said he had obtained some old files in respect of which there appeared to be cogent evidence but no prosecution was mounted. The DPP said he was totally unaware of this. The Attorney General then said he would like to have it made abundantly clear that whatever might have happened in the past the law was to be enforced. The DPP then passed this instruction to Ross and Quinn in July.
D.
22.
THE DUFFY PETITION"
On 29 June 1979, the Attorney General received from Mr. L. M. Davis, Secretary for Security, the draft petition of Duffy, containing some very serious allegations.5
23.
While some of the allegations in Duffy's draft petition were bare allegations and appeared on the face of them to be gossip, others were allegations which could not be assessed without interviewing Duffy. After a meeting of the Governor, the Chief Secretary and the Attorney General, it was decided that in regard to some of the allegations in the draft petition it would be right to have them investigated by two investigators who would report to the Attorney General personally.
24.
Duffy was interviewed by the investigators on five occasions, which were duly reported to the Attorney General. Throughout this period there were long discussions of this matter between the Governor, the Chief Secretary and the Attorney General."
25.
One of the persons mentioned in the draft petition who was of particular interest was said to be a procurer. Duffy gave his name as Molo Tsui, which was a nickname.
26.
Speaking of his then knowledge of the homosexual scene in Hong Kong and the action he took, the Attorney General said in evidence:
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because of the nature of the allegations in the Duffy petition, I wanted to know what appeared to be the homosexual scene in Hong Kong. At that stage my information was based on what I'd been told by the Governor and the Chief Secretary and by the Under Secretary of State at the Foreign Office in London. I'd also, by coincidence as it happened, heard shortly after Mr. Duffy had been convicted where I'd at a luncheon party where there were a number of journalists, including the Editor of the 'Far Eastern Economic Review', he had made his views on the homosexual scene in Hong Kong known to me. Other journalists from time to time had done so, so had other people in Government, and I wanted to know what the legal scene was, so I asked my then devil, Mr. Nigal Aitken, to discover (a) what files we, as Attorney General's Chambers, had had over, I think, five years with a view to prosecution; secondly, I asked him to discover from the police what information the police had about homosexuality. And he, I think, came back and said that he'd like the assistance of Mr. Alderdice, and I think the pair of them obtained from the police various files which they summarized the general scene for me."
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6
This section is based largely on the evidence of the Attorney General, supplemented by the evidence of Mr. Justice Macdougall. See Transcript pages 10954-10955.
This section is based substantially on the evidence of the Attorney General.
On 26 June 1979 Mr. Garner, the Commissioner of Prisons informed Mr. Davies, the Secretary for Security that the Senior Superintendent of Stanley Prison had been handed by Duffy a copy of a draft petition intended to be presented to the Governor, with a request from Duffy to the Senior Superintendent that the draft petition be sent to his solicitor. The Senior Superintendent had asked Garner whether or not acceding to this request would be in accordance with Prison Regulations. Mr. Garner felt that this was a rather unusual situation and he wanted advice from Mr. Davies as to whether he should accede to Duffy's request. Davies gave no specific advice to Garner but asked Garner to send the draft petition to him, which Garner did by letter dated 27 June 1979. Feeling that he needed advice, Davies took the draft petition to the Attorney General and spoke to him briefly about the background against which the draft petition had been received.
See Transcript page 11533.
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