A sobbing housewife told a court yesterday she was scarred for life when a robber slashed her 'as if he was slaughtering a pig'.
Tsui Shun-tong, 52, said she was attacked when the robber rejected her $16, the only money she had with her.
'The man slashed me with the knife on my face. I put up my arm to ward him off. If he had slashed my neck I would have been dead,' Mrs Tsui told the judge.
She gave a graphic courtroom reconstruction of the way in which serial robber Wong Ping-kuen, 34, cut her with a knife.
'I said I did not have money. I was still holding $16. But he did not want it. He kept on slashing my face like slaughtering a pig,' Mrs Tsui said.
Prosecutor Edward Brook said: 'She begged for mercy. Her hand was also cut trying to grab the knife.' The woman's ordeal came to an end when she screamed for help and her husband arrived on the scene, forcing Wong to flee.