Law’s origin Hong Kong precedent

In May 1980, Chan Wing-Siu, Wong Kin-Shing and Tse Wai-Ming were tried in the Hong Kong High Court for murdering Cheun Man-Kam.

The court, which applied English law and standards, as the territory was still UK-administered, heard the trio stormed the flat of a well-known local prostitute, Lam Pui-Yin.

Two of the men went to the kitchen to confront her husband while Tse stood guard over the woman. They had all gone armed with knives, it emerged during the trial.

The two men in the kitchen stabbed the husband to death after one shouted “Stab him down” and the three then fled the property together, slashing the woman non-fatally as they left, shouting “Stab her down, too”.

She suffered profuse bleeding but her injuries were later found to be minor.

The jury unanimously found all three men guilty of murder, on the direction of the judge, and they were sentenced to death. They were also found guilty of maliciously wounding the woman and handed prison terms.

In their trial, the judge had directed the jury to find Tse guilty because he was guilty of the same crime as the “primary” killer because he could have foreseen the possibility that the primary might act as he did.

The case has been used as a reference point for judge’s directing juries in similar cases over the past 30 years.

A subsequent appeal court from the time found that “Chan and Wong had joined in an attack on the deceased with at least the intention of inflicting grievous bodily harm … [and] the evidence gave room for the possible inference that Tse stood over her with the intention of facilitating that attack.”