Lai Sai v The Queen

Judgment Cited in Precedent Map Related
Judgment Date10 June 1968
Judgement NumberCACC195/1968
Year1968
CourtCourt of Appeal (Hong Kong)
CACC000195/1968 LAI SAI v. THE QUEEN

CACC000195/1968

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF HONG KONG

APPELLATE JURISDICTION

Criminal Appeal NO. 195 OF 1968

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BETWEEN
LAI SAI Appellant
AND
THE QUEEN Respondent

Coram: Hogan, C.J. & Rigby, S.P.J.

Date of Judgment: 10 June 1968

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JUDGMENT

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1. This case has caused us considerable difficulty, primarily due to the somewhat inadequate and unsatisfactory presentation of the facts following upon a plea of guilty. The appellant was originally charged with murder; he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter and that plea was accepted both by the Crown and by the trial judge. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment. He now applies for leave to appeal against that sentence.

2. At the original hearing of this appeal Mr. Suffiad, counsel for the appellant, sought to enter into a somewhat lengthy and involved story the gist of which was that the appellant had not originally really wished to plead guilty to the charge of manslaughter but was led to do so by his legal advisers in the belief that he would receive a lesser sentence. It would be improper for this Court to listen to an argument of this nature. It is by no means an uncommon practice, hallowed by the long usage of time both in England and in this Colony, for an accused person to agree to plead guilty to a lesser charge and for the prosecution to accept such a plea. The considerations which give rise to, and justify, such a practice are numerous; on the one hand, in so far as the prosecution is concerned, they include a possible difficulty or lacuna in the evidence required from the prosecution for establishing some necessary fact, or necessary ingredient, in the more serious charge; on the other hand, in so far as the defence is concerned, it includes the risk - and very often, a substantial risk - of being convicted upon the more serious charge if a plea of guilty to the lesser charge is not offered and accepted. The decision as to whether or not to offer a plea of guilty to a lesser charge is a matter in which the appellant's legal advisers, presumably fully cognizant with the facts of the case and with the law applicable to those facts, may offer advice to their client. If they do so and if, upon their advice, the accused person, fully cognizant of the facts of his own case, of the nature of his own defence, and of the consequences inevitably following upon the acceptance of that advice, chooses to accept it, it would not only be quite wrong but almost catastrophic if the contention was later to be permitted to be put before the Court that the appellant had never in fact intended to plead guilty to the charge upon which he stood convicted.

3. We turn now to the facts of this case as put before the Court following upon the appellant's plea of guilty to manslaughter and the acceptance of that plea. The appellant is a farmer 54 years of age, living in the New Territories. He has never been in trouble and appears to have been a popular and well respected inhabitant of the village in which he was living. Unfortunately, he had been on bad terms for some months past with the deceased, a woman some 24 years of age, who was his next door neighbour. According to the statement of the facts made by Crown Counsel in the court below, the trouble appears to have been primarily due to the deceased's three year old son and her dog. The incident which gave rise to the charge of manslaughter occurred on the 19th of December. During the early part of that afternoon the appellant and the deceased were heard to be quarrelling over the fact that the...

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