TNAG-1212-FCO40-1515-Crimes-and-sentences-in-Hong-Kong--including-death-sentences-1982 — Page 3

to avoid talking. It is probable that a small minority of kidnappings actually or potentially come within this area of cold blooded murder to avoid detection, but it is doubted that this is influenced by the possible penalty as opposed to the fear of detection simpliciter.

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In the period 1979-82 out of some 28 reported kidnap victims some six are believed to have been murdered, although only three bodies have been found. Of these, three are believed to have been intended from the outset as murders rather than as kidnappings.. In a case where a boy of 12 and a girl of 6 disappeared in 1979 it was originally thought conceivable that the children were still alive and being cared for by foster parents, but on the present information it is impossible to know the true position. Finally there is a pending case in which a 14 year old boy was kidnapped and then murdered. In this case business associates of the father allegedly took the boy from school and later killed him because he recognised them.

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In many Hong Kong kidnappings members of the extended family/employees or ex-employees/business contacts are behind the crime, following an inequitable family or business share-out of wealth. Nevertheless, while there can be no certainty in assessments of this kind, it is doubted if in the period under scrutiny there has been more than the one case of kidnapping for ransom followed by murder to avoid detection.

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It is probable that the certainty or otherwise of detection and then of conviction operates far more strongly on the mind of potential criminals than does the maximum or likely punishment for a crime.

Child Stealing

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This Victorian offence should not be confused with kidnapping children for ransom. The main problem facing the nineteenth century English legislature was that poor, badly-cared-for children were being enticed to other homes. for the labour they could provide. The section is a source of confusion and should be renamed "child enticing" because it is possible for the media and the public to confuse the concept of "possession" of a child with forcible detention for

The offence is being further examined with a view to its amendment to meet any modern social problem in Hong Kong (such as the seizure of children from a parent to whom custody has been given by the Courts on divorce), or its repeal.

ransom.

RESTRICTED