Young Hong Kong noodle chef jailed for five years after battering taxi driver while he was drunk
Judge calls the incident a senseless tragedy; driver died after suffering internal bleeding and multiple bruises and abrasions to his face, chest and limbs
A young noodle chef was jailed for five years for manslaughter after accepting that he fractured the skull of a taxi driver for not being familiar with the roads in June last year.
Yip Hon-ming, 27, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to one count of manslaughter.
But he could not recall the events leading up to Wong Loi-shing’s death because he got too drunk on the night of their brawl, celebrating his two-year-old daughter’s birthday on June 13.
His defence counsel, Richard Donald, said in mitigation: “[Yip] woke up next morning, covered in blood and clueless as to how the blood had got on him, or what had happened.”
High Court judge Madam Justice Esther Toh Lye-ping described the event as a “senseless tragedy”, saying she believed Yip’s conscience would always be tormented because he unnecessarily caused loss of life.
She accepted that the father of three was remorseful and that his crime was not premeditated.
But she also noted that his offence was more serious than other single-punch manslaughter cases as he continued to attack Wong despite intervention by passers-by.