Hksar v Lam Chi Keung

Judgment Date26 February 1998
Citation[1998] 1 HKLRD 440
Judgement NumberFAMC12/1997
Subject MatterMiscellaneous Proceedings (Criminal)
CourtCourt of Final Appeal (Hong Kong)
FAMC000012/1997 HKSAR v. LAM CHI KEUNG

FAMC000012/1997

FAMC No. 12 of 1997

IN THE COURT OF FINAL APPEAL OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

MISCELLANEOUS PROCEEDINGS NO. 12 OF 1997 (CRIMINAL)

(ON APPLICATION FOR LEAVE TO APPEAL
FROM HCMA 1015 OF 1996)

____________________

Between

LAM CHI KEUNG

Appellant

AND

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

Respondent

____________________

Appeal Committee :Mr Justice Litton PJ, Mr Justice Ching PJ and Mr Justice Power NPJ

Date of Hearing : 17 February 1998

Date of Handing Down : 26 February 1998

_____________________________

D E T E R M I N A T I O N

____________________________

Litton, Permanent Judge:

1. This is the Appeal Committee's determination.

2. There is before us an application, made well out of time, for leave to appeal against conviction by a magistrate on four charges of indecent assault, contrary to s122(1) of the Crimes Ordinance, Cap 200. The first matter to consider is whether an extension of time should be granted to enable the application to proceed.

3. The offences are alleged to have occurred in May and June 1995. It is alleged that the applicant, then a man in his 30s, indecently assaulted a 12-year-old girl who lived next door at a housing estate in Tseung Kwan O; this occurred on four occasions when she went to the applicant's home to play with a young child.

4. The applicant was tried at the Eastern Magistracy and was convicted on 9 July 1996. On 10 October 1996 his appeal was reserved by Mrs Justice Verina Bokhary to the Court of Appeal pursuant to s118(1)(d) of the Magistrates Ordinance. The appeal was heard by the Court of Appeal in December 1996 and judgment was given on 29 April 1997 dismissing the appeal and confirming the convictions on the four charges. It was not until 5 September 1997 that a notice of motion was taken out on the applicant's behalf seeking a certificate from the Court of Appeal, pursuant to s32(2) of the Court of Final Appeal Ordinance, Cap 484, that there were questions of law of great and general importance for the Court's determination. This was dismissed on 22 October 1997. Over six weeks later, on 10 December 1997, the application to certify under s32(3) of the Court of Final Appeal Ordinance was lodged, together with the application for leave to appeal, and these are the matters to be entertained by us now, if an extension of time be granted.

5. The issue before the magistrate Mr Line was straight-forward: whether on all the evidence he was satisfied that the four charges of indecent assault were established. Procedurally, what happened was this: Prior to the hearing of the charges on 8 July 1996, the complainant had been examined by Madam Cheung Lam Shuk-yee, a social worker employed in the Children Protection Services Unit of the Social Welfare Department, and this was recorded on video tape. On an application made under s79C of the Criminal Procedure Ordinance a magistrate at Eastern Magistracy Mr Wright had given leave, without objection from the applicant, for the video recording to be given in evidence. Accordingly, at the commencement of the hearing on 8 July, the video recording was formally admitted by agreement and marked as Ex. 1. A transcript was produced and marked as Ex. 3, and the translation Ex. 3A. The magistrate then explained to the complainant the importance of her telling the truth and she was cross-examined by counsel for the applicant. The applicant testified in his own defence, but he turned out to be a poor witness: One reason he advanced for the complainant, then aged 12, making false allegations against him was that she had indicated that she loved him and wanted him for a boy-friend but he rejected her: In other words, that false allegations were made against him by a 12-years-old girl scorned in love. But none of this was put to the girl in cross-examination by his counsel: An omission which the magistrate took pains to ascertain was not accidental.

6. After a carefully conducted trial the applicant was convicted.

7. Despite the fact that the question of an extension of time is our first concern, we have looked carefully at the so-called points of law of great and general importance as set out in the notice of motion dated 10 December 1997. The first point is formulated in a tortuous manner. But clarified by counsel it reads thus:

"Whether it was in the discretion of the magistrate to determine whether the child witness was competent to give evidence in the sense that he had brought home to her the importance of telling the truth and if so whether this was properly done".

We have difficulty in understanding the question. It is in any case academic: It does not arise in this case because the magistrate did in fact bring home to the witness the importance of telling the truth: He told the girl twice that it was important that she should tell the truth. As the Court of Appeal said (p5 of its judgment): "The necessity to tell the truth was brought home to this witness." Counsel says the magistrate should have gone...

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