Decorator jailed over airgun bombardment

A decorator convicted of using a self-assembled airgun to spray five flats in Yuen Long with metal ball bearings - breaking windows and hitting one passer-by - was sentenced to 30 months in jail yesterday.

Choy Sim-kit, 48, previously denied six counts of criminal damage, one of common assault and one of illegally possessing a firearm. He was convicted of all charges in the District Court two weeks ago.

Choy was to have been sentenced on the day of his conviction after his lawyer said there was not much to say in mitigation. But Judge Anthony Kwok Kai-on adjourned the session because the defendant asked for a background report and psychiatric report.

Yesterday, Kwok said there were many discrepancies in the reports. He said the defendant told the probation officer after conviction that he did commit the crime, but told a psychiatrist that he did not.

He also told the psychiatrist that he had been hearing voices since he was 21, and had been instructed to shoot on that particular day. "He never raised that in court during the trial," Kwok said, adding Choy had only told the psychiatrist about it the second time they met.

Because of the stress of having to come to court, Choy had briefly required treatment for depression, Kwok said. But since then, he had recovered and no longer needed hospital treatment.