Govt Appeal Sees Man Sent Back To Prison

A man who admitted carrying two iron pipes with him has been given a three-month prison term, after the Department of Justice (DOJ) successfully challenged his original, more lenient punishment.

Szeto Ho-sun, 21, was previously jailed for 10 days after pleading guilty to possessing offensive weapons.

He was caught carrying the pipes by police in Sha Tin on November 5, 2019.

The DOJ argued at the Court of Appeal that the pipes had been adapted by being filled with concrete, and the original sentence didn't provide enough of a deterrent to others.

It said the trial magistrate, Jason Wan, hadn't explained why he adopted a starting point of 15 days behind bars, claiming he had sympathised too much with the defendant.

Szeto's lawyer, however, said Wan had passed the original sentence because there was no evidence that the defendant had used the pipes as weapons and because he wasn't arrested at the scene of a protest.

The lawyer said Wan had taken into account Szeto's relatively young age, but there was no "sympathy" for him and magistrates are entitled to express their individual opinions when passing sentence.

However, the Court of Appeal agreed with the DOJ.

A three-judge panel adopted a starting point of eight months in prison for Szeto, reducing this to three months.

They explained that the reduction was made in consideration of the fact that the sentence review came long after the offence occurred, and because the defendant may well be anxious about having to go to prison for a second time.