Tai Po 'Lennon Tunnel' Slasher Jailed For Six Years

A mainland man was on Friday sentenced to six years and four months in prison, after he admitted to stabbing and slashing a 19-year-old student at the Tai Po 'Lennon tunnel' two years ago.

Liu Guosheng, a Guangxi native who came to Hong Kong on October 18, 2019, was originally charged with attempted murder but ultimately pleaded guilty to wounding with intent.

High Court judge Andrew Chan heard that the man, who is in his 20s, attacked the student on the day following his arrival, after he was confronted for tearing down political posters from the tunnel's walls.

The court heard he left the tunnel, but – claiming he couldn’t stand someone destroying Hong Kong – Liu took out a knife and returned to the underpass.

He slit the neck of his teenage victim, who had been handing out protest-related leaflets. Liu also knifed the 19-year-old in the stomach, causing his guts to spill out.

"Hong Kong belongs to China! You bunch are messing up Hong Kong!" Liu shouted as he escaped.

He got into a taxi and asked the driver to take him to Lo Wu so “he would be safe”, but the taxi driver instead took Liu to a police station where he turned himself in.

In mitigation, the defence said Liu, who described himself as a "patriot", had carried the knife because he felt unsafe. He said when he arrived in Hong Kong, those around him held vastly different views, and he felt “as if he was surrounded by gangs of wolves”.

But this was dismissed during sentencing by the judge, who said the defendant had planned to commit the crime as he purchased the knife after he arrived in Hong Kong.

The judge said the victim's life has been destroyed – he suffered from serious psychological distress and had tried to kill himself several times.