4 Mar 1974
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL v. LAU KAM-TIM
- Citation
- THE ATTORNEY GENERAL v. LAU KAM-TIM
- Court
- Court of Appeal
- Case number
- CAAR5/1974
Detention in an addiction treatment centre may be lawful but is only justifiable in rare cases where there is no violence, no weapon, no accomplice and a demonstrated genuine desire for treatment; where those conditions are absent and public protection and deterrence demand it, a custodial sentence must be imposed — accordingly the trial orders for treatment were inappropriate in these cases and substituted by 18 months' imprisonment with time spent in treatment centres credited.