2012年2月11日星期六

警司非禮

酒後搣女教師臀 退休警司非禮罪成

【明報專訊】退休警司在太子警察體育遊樂會酒店外「搣」女教師臀部,昨日被裁定非禮罪成。被告早前聲稱自己被撞後,通常會推開對方再搣人一下,但昨被裁判官指說法荒誕,行為令人反感,斥責被告不能肆意侵犯女性。

「被撞後會搣對方」 被斥荒誕

50歲的被告趙蟾雄,昨獲10多名舊同僚到庭支持,他離庭時未有回應提問,其大律師代表李祖詒稱仍未決定會否上訴。

裁判官昨指出,兩名控方證人的證供合情合理,反而被告的證供與他向警方錄取的口供前後矛盾。裁判官不相信被告會習慣在酒後搣撞到他的人,認為此舉令人反感,身為退休資深警司的被告,不可能不加以避免。他深信被告搣女教師臀部並非出於誤會或意外,裁定他罪成
。(10/2/2012明報節錄)

趙蟾雄枉為警司,當差30幾年,竟然用這絕對荒誕的抗辯理據,不如打complete denial好了。標少當然並非在扮演師爺的角色,替他捏造事實,創作辯護理據,而是評論他這拙劣的天方夜譚,難以置信。被告聲稱自己被撞後,通常會推開對方再捏一下,這是標少在法庭工作多年以來,第一次聽到最可笑的廢話。這笑話可以媲美多年前遇過一宗非法入境者持假身分證案,II的解釋是有一天在深圳行街,在地上拾到身分證,不知不覺之間行到了香港,他並沒打算來香港的,異曲同工,虧他們說得出口。

趙蟾雄難以用醉酒至不知事發過程作抗辯,非禮的犯案意圖(mens rea)要求specific intent, self induced intoxication作為抗辯的話,被告要醉到連非禮意圖也沒有才行,如果我沒記錯,那是House of Lord在DPP v Majewski 的裁決。反正要捏造抗辯理由,不如以徹底否認、意外碰觸或者事出誤會作抗辯,都比異乎尋常的講法優勝。講法荒謬,原審法官不相信你,聽上訴的法官也不相信你。如果以上列的抗辯講法,原審法官不信,上訴幸運的話,可能獲得lurking doubt而被判得直。





6 則留言:

  1. I am a Year 2 LLB student. According to my criminal law textbook (Michael Jackson's Criminal Law in Hong Kong, 2003) p.631 and p.635, the mens rea of indecent assault is either intention to or Cunningham recklessness as to assault or battery, which is a basic intent offence instead of specific intent if D's act is "inherently indecent". (Culyer [1992] Times 17 April 1992) Only when there is ambiguity as to whether the act is indecent and it is necessary to prove D acted with "indecent intention", then it is arguable that indecent assault ought to be treated as a specific intent offence. If the news article is accurate, I would consider D's act as inherently indecent and thus the mens rea requirement is basic intent, which means voluntary intoxication constitutes no defence.

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  2. Young Lad,

    Thank you for pointing out the mistake. You are right. It is my inadvertently error. Good on you to check the law book. It is unfortunate that I do not have any law book with me. I should be more careful next time. Thank you for your citation.

    Bill

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  3. For specific intent, the mens rea can be satisfied by intention only. And for basic intent, the mens rea can be satisfied by intention or recklessness.

    Although indecent assault is a basic intent offence, that stupid superintentant can have argued the act was an accident (surely he may need to lie), so there is ambiguity as to the indecency of the act. And he could claim that he got no such intention as the bumping was a result of his intoxication.

    I guess he lied to his own lawyer so that he was not given the suitable advice

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    1. The problem with his defence is that the bumping could be accidental but the pinching was not. Of course, even the bumping could not be said to be accidental. It was at night in a sparsely pedestrians frequented street. Thank you for enlightening me.

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  4. 真巧, 我也碰見過同類荒謬答辯理由:

    (1) 一位阿叔一進入電梯, 他見到電梯內的女士便即刻揸胸. 他不認罪, 但承認胸襲. 他說: "我以為佢係雞咪揸佢囉!"

    (2) 被告人被控非法入境, 他不認罪, 他說: "我在深圳河邊洗布鞋, 洗洗o下一隻鞋跌o左落河, 我跳落水執鞋, 水流急, 我游游o下上岸, 跟住就話我入o左香港."

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  5. 當想不到有人會信的答辯理由,自己也不信的都要一試。

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