Triad broke boy's finger with hammer
A TRIAD member who hammered a 15-year-old boy's fingers for spreading rumours the man was mean with money was sentenced to 21/2 years in jail by the District Court yesterday.
During his trial last month, Fan Chun-hing, 27, had denied wounding with intent, claiming to be a triad member, and being a triad member.
But Deputy Judge Duggan found Fan, a member of the Wo Shing Wo triad, guilty of all three charges.
In mitigation yesterday, defence counsel Peter Ip said Fan was a drug addict who had fallen in with bad company.
During the trial last month, the Crown alleged that the teenage victim had been a courier trafficking in dangerous drugs for Chan Ming-luen, 33, from September 1993, but he had stopped six months later.
In the small hours of June 25 last year, Chan summoned the teenager to a flat in Lower Wong Tai Sin Estate, where he was assaulted.
In his testimony last month, the boy said Chan had slapped him once on the face. Then Fan used a towel-wrapped hammer to hit his left hand, breaking the middle finger.
The teenager told the court Chan had slapped him because he had not taken the man's advice to stop taking drugs, and denied he had spread rumours about the purity of Chan's alleged drugs.
Chan, who pleaded guilty to assaulting the boy, was fined $1,000. He was acquitted of trafficking in dangerous drugs.
The teenager said Fan had hammered him because he had told other people that the triad member was mean with money.
Deputy Judge Duggan sentenced Fan to 18 months for wounding, and six months each for claiming to be and being a triad member. The terms are to run consecutively.
