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368
The following jury was empanelled:-Messrs. | F. Smith P. Hardman, D. H. Cameron, G. Bole, H. A. Lammert, E. V Tilden and W. Clark,
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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The Acting Attorney General in his opening statement said that on 28th March at ten o'clock at night the deceased and a woman went to the Police Station and the deceased complained of having been assaulted by the aconsed. Evidence would show that the man was then bleeding slightly from the head, but, as it would appear, that injury had nothing to do with his death. | It was but just to the prisoner to explain now that he said that the villagers including the deceased had interfered with him that day when he was making an arrest and in the course of that interference he struck the man on the head. The constable however did not report this matter at the time to Sergeant Adlington who was in charge of the station. On the following morning Fergeant Adlington was in the charge-room when the deceased and a woman entered to make their charge, not having Been the sergeant on the previous night. Deceased was to all ap. pearance perfectly well The sergeant told the deceased man to wait outside a few minutes. Apparently the latter misunderstood what was said to him, for he went outside and walked away. The sergeant sent accused who was then on duty to bring him back. Prisoner followed him, over ook him and, the evidence would show, without any necorssity assaulted him and kicked him about the legs. This had nothing to do with the man's death, but it showed the systematic course of violence fol- lowed by the accused towards the deceased man. Prisoner brought the man back and he was put on the verandah to await an opportunity of seeing the sergeant. Here the accused made a third assault upon the prisoner. He struck him or pushed him with great violence against a window-frame on the verandah with the result that the man fell beavily to the floor and fainted. He was brought round by the sergeant but expired about an hour afterwards. A post- mortem examination stowed that the cause of death was a ruptured spleen, resulting from a violent blow. The spleen of the deceased appeared to bave been enlarged, he being apparently a malarial subject. His death must have been caused by the violence of the prisoner. The police must not abuse the powers given them by their position, and it was to be feard that Chinese constables when unobserved by their superiors did sometimes abuse these powers.
Evidence was called. Lance-Bergeant Adlington deposed that on the morning of the day iu quration he saw the accused man push the deceased violently from behind against the window-frame on the verandah of the Police Station. J'eceased fell away in a dead faint into the prisoner's arms and then on to the ground. Witness was in the charge-room at that time ab ut six yards away! Deceased was walking along quietly, offering no provocation to the constable. Wit- ness went out and brought the deceased man round. He complained of pains in his inside and appeared to be in great pain. Witness telephoned to Ta po for the doctor. The man afterwards fainted again but witness brught him round, pot a statement from him, and then carried him into the charge room where he died an hour and a quar- ter after being pushed against the window. When deceased came into the station that morning he e
seemed to be in perfectly good belth.
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Indian Acting Sergeant 696, gave evidence
of a corroborative nature.
guilty as libelled but recommended bim to mercy on the grourd that the abnormal size of the deceased man's spleen probably contributed to his death.
Dr. William Hunter, who made the post- mortem examination, deposed that be found the spleen ruptured in four or five places. A blow would have caused the injuries; the push aguins the window which had been described could have caused them.
By t'e Court-1upture of the spleen could
· be caused by violent muscular exertion.
{May 23, 1903, difficult for a wife it was to resist the moral suasion or compulsion of her husband. But there were some crimen so terrible that even although it was quite clear that a woman aoted under such c. mpulsion she could not be allowed to get off altogether; and this setting fire to a house was one. He reduced the sentence from three years to six months' imprisonment with hard labour.
ALLEGED HIGHWAY ROBBER—Ą. MISSING WITNESS.
In the case in which Yeung Kwai Cheung, Chang Shing, Cheng, Ki Mo, Wong Tin and Li Hoi are charged with highway robbery,
His Lordship in passing sentence said he agreed with the jury. He believed that had the deceased man's spleen been of northal size the fall would not have caused bis death. But this was not a case of an ordinary affray between man and man. In that case his Lordship would probably have taken the view that the term of imprisonment already undergone by the prisoner met the requirements of the case. But prisoner was a member of the Police Force: and police officers and other officers of the law hav ing persons in custody must clearly under-authorised to prosecute on behalf of the Acting stand that they were not entitled to use towards such persons any more violence or force than was absolutely necessary to enable them to per- form their duty. In order to mark his sense of the illegality and inpropriety of the prisoner's conduct as a police officer in using violence towards the deceased, he would sentence him to one month's imprisonment. Had the prisoner been an ordinary citizen be would have gone free. THE ARSON CASE- Woman'S SENTENCE
The accused when asked if he wished to make any statement said that when he told the deceased to go on the verandah the man refuted and he had to use neccesary violence to get him up. When the man was near the window be fell down. He (the prisoner) did not push hi'n or assault him as alleged by the witnesses.
The jury unanimously found the prisoner
REDUCED.
Wong Ping who with her husband Ho Ping had been convicted at the previous day's sitting of arson at 2 5 Queen's Road West and sentenced to three years' imprisonment (her husband get- ting seven), was brought into Court.
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His Lordship, addressing the Acting At- torney-General, said that since passing sentence he had had very serious doubts as to whether he bad taken the right view as far as the woman was concerned. As the Acting Attorney- General knew, in cases of ordinary felony and in misdemeanours a wife if she committed the offence alleged against her in presence of her husband was in law assumed to have acted under his compulsion. But there were certain felonies such as murder and treason which were considered malae in sc, which were so bad in themselves that the compulsion of the husband even could not excuse the wife for taking part in them. here were those in high authority who added other crimes to the murder and treason cate gory. He himself took the view on the previous day that the crime charged against those two persons came within that category, inasmuch as the allegation was that fire had been set to a house in which persons were then dwelling and asleep; and he thought that on the facts as disclosed before the Magistrate it would have been competent f r the Crown to have charged attempted murder. He felt justified in saying that a person who set fire to a house in which persons were asleep might be charged with intent to murder those persons, and from his own point of view, following a certain school of law- yers, he would include in the category of crimes that are male in se the terrible crime of setting fire to a house in which persons were asleep, Still the question was not without doubt and had not been clearly held to be so. In the circumstances he thought he ought to, and he intended to-he would be glad if it met with the Acting Attorney-General's approbation revi e the woman's rentence by way of reducing it. He was 1 of prepared to go to perhaps the logical conclusion and remit the sentence alto- gether, because if the crime with which she was charged did not authoritatively come within the category of mala in se crimes, still there was a doubt. He proposed to regard this woman, therefore, as having. acted under the compulsion of her husband. But it having been proved that she was present with him all the time during which the evidence concerned him at all his Lordship proposed in the circum- stances to reduce the sentence from th eẻ years to six months.
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The Acting Atteruey-Genaral said he agreed with his Lordship antirely.
His Lordship remarked that it gave him considerable satisfaction to hear that expression of opinion from the Acting Attorney-General as bepresenting the Crown. Addressing the pri- soner his Lordship went on the say that she and her husband had been convicted of a horrible crime. He did not intend to alter the busband's sentence of seven years, but he had had the conviction borne in upon him that she had acted under his compulsion. If the crime which they had committed together had been of a less heinous obaracter be would have discharged the woman altogether, because one knew how
Mr. H. E. Pollock. K.C., said he had been
Attorney-General. The principal witness, the prosecutor in fact, by name Lan Hoi, bad how- ever disappeared; the police had made enquiries at Kowloon City to which place he went periodically; but he had not been seen there of late. He believed the prosecutor's home was in Chinese territory. He asked his Lordship to admit as evidence the man's deposition taken at the Magistracy (Section 32 of Ordinance No. 2. of 1889).
His Lordship declined to sanction this course, but said he would fix the hearing for Friday, putting the case last on the list, to allow the Crown to bring forward this witness if possible.
The Court adjourned.
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Wednesday, 20th May.
IN CRIMINAL JURISDICTION.
BEFORE HIS HONOUR SIR HENRY 8. BERKELEY (ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE).
THE GAGE STREET MURDER TRIAL. Liu Chui alias Li Kwai Fan was charged with the murder of Yueng Kuo Wan, the Reformer schoolmaster, in Gage Street, on 10th January, 1901
He pleaded not guilty.
Mr E. H. Sharp, K.C.. Aoting Attorney. General (instructed by Mr. F. B. L. Bowley, Crown Solicitor), conducted the prosecntion: and Mr. T. Morgan Phillips, barrister-at-law, was for the defence.
The following jury was empanelled :---Messrs. W. Nicholls, P. Dow, R. Saxon, J. W. Crouch, P. Hardman, J. A.T. Plummer and A. 8. Anton. Foreman, Mr Dow.
The Acting Attorney-General in opening the case said the accused was charged as being a member, in fact the leader, of a gang of four men who committed this deed in concert together. All four of these men had been for some time known to the Crown by name, but the other three unfortunately were not before the Court. They had not been canght and in all probability would never be found within the jurisdiction of this Colony so that they could be caught. The prisoner only returned to Horg koug last month and was arrested. The circumstances of the murder were fairly notorious. Deceased lived at 52, Gage Street in a corner beuse fronting upon that street and Aberdeen Street. He rented the whole of the first floor consisting of a large room and two cubicles and kitchen in the rear. The ground at the back was almost one storey higher than in front. The first floor was entered by the back fiem a lane and wes practically on a level with the late, which debonched into Aberdeen Street by a short flight of steps. Deceased e nducted a night school for the teaching of English to Chinere boys and young men. The c'arses commenced at six o'clock, in the large front room. the evening in question deceased was sitting at a table in the centre of the room, reading to a class from a book. The door was on the latch for the convenience of pupils arriving late, and it was corsequently easy for anybody to enter without attracting any particular attention. The wife of the deceased man, her daughter and two small children were in the cubicles at the back of the premises. About half-past six o'clock a man suddenly appeared in the class-r om. He was seen for a moment by a few there but not by the deceased. This man walked a certain distance into the room fairly close up to the table and suddenly discharged three or four shots at the deceased. The shots took effect and deceased fell forward on to the table, the pupils fled in panic, and in
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