Magistrate Vivian Ho acquitted a 70-year-old former police senior colonel of 2 counts of shop theft.

The Defendant, a 70-year-old former police senior colonel (大校) and deputy director (副廳長) of a Provincial Public Security Department in Mainland China, was charged with 2 counts of shop thefts. The prosecution case was that within a 2-week period, the Defendant visited a supermarket twice and took away groceries without payment. On the second day of his visit, the Defendant was stopped by a shop-manager of the supermarket. The police were called. It was alleged that the Defendant then signed on a record of interview that he made a confession under caution – “I stole the food out of greed for my own consumption” (我一時貪心偷來吃) in Putonghua.

The Magistrate ruled the alleged confession inadmissible. The Court found the arresting officer’s evidence unbelievable – it was alleged that she communicated with the Defendant in fluent Putonghua, read out the Notice to Person in Police Custody in Putonghua (without the assistance of the PTH interpreter despite his presence and merely asked him to witness the event), communicated with him in Putonghua on miscellaneous matters, but then suddenly changed to Cantonese when cautioning him. The police officer also flagrantly neglected the purdah warning of the court and read her own police notebook during the luncheon adjournment. The Court found it extremely unsettling that the Defendant and his daughter-in-law initially intended to find a lawyer to assist the Defendant, but after around 1 hour in the absence of the PTH interpreter, the Defendant suddenly said he would not need any legal assistance and even asked the lawyer who was on his way not to come to the police station. Further, it was beyond belief that whilst the Defendant repeated no less than once in front of the shop manager (who was a prosecution witness) that he intended and had the ability to pay but merely got lost within the supermarket, but then within a few minutes changed his version to him stealing the goods “out of greed”. In all, the court found that the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the Defendant alleged confession was obtained voluntarily.

The Magistrate further accepted the evidence of the defence medical expert. It was an uncontested fact that the Defendant had suffered numerous strokes shortly before the time of the alleged offence. MRI images revealed that the Defendant’s left temporal and left occipital lobe had serious damages after the strokes which had affected the Defendant’s visual ability, speech function, and short-term memory. Having assessed all the evidence, the Magistrate had grave reservation as to whether the Defendant did in fact acted dishonestly in the said incidents. The Defendant was therefore acquitted of both charges of theft.

Simon So appeared with Jack Hui in the said trial which lasted for 4 days, involving 4 prosecution witnesses and 3 defence witnesses.