Hong Kong Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Confession voluntariness

Legal area

Court

19 Feb 2024

香港特別行政區訴蔣瑛楠

Citation

[2024] HKCFI 534
Court

Court of First Instance
Case number

HCMA24/2021

After reviewing the trial record de novo with appropriate deference to the trial judge's advantage of seeing and hearing witnesses, the judge's credibility findings were not perverse; the appellant's oral admission and cautioned statements were voluntary and admissible; circumstantial and corroborating evidence permitted the inference that the items belonged to another and that the appellant intended permanent deprivation; the refusal to hold a Newton hearing and the amendment to the charge did not produce unfairness — accordingly conviction and sentence were upheld.
19 Aug 2022

香港特別行政區訴黎明耀

Citation

[2022] HKCA 1217
Court

Court of Appeal
Case number

CACC41/2022

The appellate judge held that the trial judge correctly found the admissions were voluntary and corroborated, that the defence medical evidence did not establish police assault or undermine voluntariness, and that the father's role was appropriate; therefore there was no arguable ground of error in admitting or relying upon the confessions and the application for leave to appeal against conviction was rightly refused.
4 Dec 2020

HKSAR v, TSUI CHI WAI

Citation

[2020] HKCA 1007
Court

Court of Appeal
Case number

CACC315/2017

The appeal was allowed because the trial judge failed to give a Mushtaq direction on a contested verbal admission where voluntariness was plainly in issue; that failure, compounded by counsel errors at pre‑trial and pre‑summing stages, undermined the safety of the convictions and required quashing and a retrial.
9 Sept 2020

HKSAR v. LAM WING HIN

Citation

[2020] HKCFI 2366
Court

Court of First Instance
Case number

HCCC217/2019

The plea was entered because the defendant was told there was no CCTV footage and his request for a change of solicitor was not implemented; counsel should have sought the management/shop CCTV; the defendant was deprived of full consideration and thus his plea was not voluntary, so in the interests of justice the plea was reversed to not guilty.
14 Nov 2018

HKSAR v. WONG CHUCK PAN

Citation

[2018] HKCFA 54
Court

Court of Final Appeal
Case number

FAMC17/2018

The deputy magistrate did not err in treating the accused's failure to make immediate complaints as admissible and relevant to the limited issue of whether the alleged confessions were voluntary; the magistrate's findings were supported by the evidence as a whole and the applicant's contentions were not reasonably arguable, so leave to appeal was refused.
1 Aug 2003

HKSAR v. LOK CHI SHING

Citation

HKSAR v. LOK CHI SHING
Court

Court of Appeal
Case number

CACC72/2003

The Court dismissed the application for leave to appeal because the applicant's complaints reflected misunderstanding of trial tactics and did not demonstrate any clear incompetence by defence counsel or any arguable defect in the conviction based on the evidence (confessions, CCTV, clothing and prior visit); accordingly there was no basis to disturb the conviction, and the court exercised its s.83W power to order that three months of pre‑proceedings custody shall not count towards sentence.
2 Apr 2003

HKSAR v. KWOK KIN MING

Citation

HKSAR v. KWOK KIN MING
Court

Court of Appeal
Case number

CACC513/2002

The Court held there was no merit in the application; the evidence against the applicant was overwhelming (identifications, confessions, leading police to recovered items, fingerprints/palmprint and a DNA match) and the trial and judicial directions were fair, so the convictions were upheld.
30 Jun 1998

HKSAR v. WONG CHUNG YIT

Citation

HKSAR v. WONG CHUNG YIT
Court

Court of Appeal
Case number

CACC41/1998

The trial judge properly considered the defence points, rejected them after exhaustive findings on credibility and factual matters, and the conviction was not shown to be unsafe; therefore the application for leave to appeal is dismissed.
5 Jun 1997

R. v. TANG WING KEUNG

Citation

R. v. TANG WING KEUNG
Court

Court of Appeal
Case number

CACC707/1996

Leave to appeal was refused because the trial judge had considered in depth the identification, the confession and the recovery of the knife and was properly satisfied as to their reliability; the alleged prosecutorial remark about the jeans' colour would not have distracted the judge from forming his own independent view.
17 Jan 1997

R. v. CHEUNG YUEN CHUNG and Another

Citation

R. v. CHEUNG YUEN CHUNG and Another
Court

Court of Appeal
Case number

CACC87/1996

The court held the cautioned statements were admissible and voluntary but concluded the trial judge's summing-up contained inaccuracies and failures to sufficiently alert the jury to inconsistencies in the complainant's evidence as to the 1st applicant's presence, producing a lurking doubt about the safety of that conviction; accordingly the 1st applicant's conviction was quashed while the 2nd applicant's conviction was upheld.