Schizophrenic Hong Kong man sentenced to hospital detention after gruesome attacks
District Court hears Yeung Chi-tak slashed three victims after they allegedly insulted him years prior to attack
A schizophrenic man who slashed three people in Yuen Long because he felt insulted has been given a hospital order for an unspecified period.
District Court judge Timothy Casewell said in sentencing Yeung Chi-tak that there was a need to protect the safety of both the defendant and the public.
Yeung, 40, pleaded guilty last month to three counts of wounding with intent after he attacked a man in December and then slashed two women in March. He was arrested after one of the victims and a security guard called police.
Yeung initially told police he met Chan at a video arcade centre. But soon he gave another version and said he did not know Chan, so he kept asking who Chan was.
But the pair, according to prosecutors, had met as early as 2003, when Chan started staying at an elderly care centre which Yeung would often pass by. There, Chan would call him “Tak Chai”.
On December 23 last year, Chan could not sleep in the evening and went outside to sit with Yeung who was sitting outside the centre. “Tak Chai, are you here?” he asked.
Instead of replying, Yeung stood up and cut Chan’s right arm and thigh with a cutter picked up from the ground.
Yeung later admitted to police that he had been at the scene but said he did not know the victim, except to recall that Chan had used foul language towards him some 20 years ago.
He also recalled that he had been approached on March 8 by somebody who had insulted him, before he slashed his two other victims, Ng Fung-kwan, in the neck, and Lau Ka-pui, in the right arm.
He explained to police upon his arrest: “Those women had insulted me earlier and that was why I took a cutter to them.”
Two psychiatrist reports ordered by the court recommended a hospital order after finding Yeung had schizophrenia and other psychiatric conditions caused by his long-term use of cough medicine, cocaine and methamphetamine, also known as Ice.
He received treatment at Castle Peak Hospital from 2002 to 2014, when he was discharged.
The court heard that he had told doctors he could hear voices saying what people thought of him.
Yeung initially told police he met Chan at a video arcade center. But soon he gave another version and said he did not know Chan, so he kept asking who Chan was.
