CONFIDENTIAL
J
6.
Having regard to the circumstances of the whole case we feel that a sentence of three years without the caning is certainly inadequate. For the reasons given we set aside the caning sentence of ten strokes and substitute therefore an additional year of imprisonment in respect of each of the first four charges. The sentence for the fifth charge is confirmed. All the sentences will be
concurrent.
The Appellant will serve
a total of four years sentence."
As I have indicated, the use of corporal punishment since that judgement was handed down in 1980 has, if anything,
been further reduced.
Alternative Sentences
7.
The Hong Kong penal system offers to the courts here the whole panoply of sentencing alternatives common to most free, modern and sophisticated societies. The development of that system here came later than it did in Western Europe, particularly the United Kingdom, but to a very large extent it mirrored the process of diversification of sentencing objectives which had taken place in England half a century before.
8.
Beginning with the Probation of Offenders Act 1907, a series of legislative enactments conferred on the courts in England, the power to deal with the offender as an individual, as opposed to following the punitive approach implicit in 19th century legislation. Adopting as my authority the adage that history always repeats itself, I assume that the Scots led their southern neighbours along the path to enlightenment in this area of legal reform as they did in so many others.
1
JONFIDENTIAL
/2.7.
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