TWO teenage killers who were spared a jail term because of their 'disturbed' childhoods came from backgrounds no different to those of most young people in Hong Kong, an appeal court judge said yesterday.
Mr Justice Ching said mitigation put forwards after the youths admitted manslaughter made their upbringing sound like a Charles Dickens novel.
But their experiences were not unusual, he said.
Li Ying-keun, 17, and Cheng Wai-lun, 18, were sent to a training centre by Mr Justice Saied in March after they admitted strangling their 13-year-old friend with a wire noose and then demanding a $500,000 ransom from his parents.
The judge chided their parents for a lack of guidance. He refused to send the teenagers to prison because psychiatric reports showed they were suffering from a 'conduct disorder' caused by their appalling childhoods.
Mr Justice Saied's decision caused outrage and the Attorney-General sought a review of the sentences by the Court of Appeal.
