A judge's blunder in finding it suspicious that an alleged robber had knives in his kitchen led to him being freed from a seven-year jail term yesterday.
Mr Justice Noel Power, who allowed the man's appeal, said: 'I hesitate to think how many knives I have in my kitchen. I wonder whether they would be used to link me with a robbery.' The mistake was made by District Court Judge Maggie Poon Man-kay, who was promoted this month.
Vu Trong Huan, 33, was arrested at a flat where seven people lived. Four knives were found in the kitchen. Mr Justice Power said there was no evidence to link the knives with the robbery.
'You would expect to find a number of knives in any domestic kitchen,' he said.
But Judge Poon had found it suspicious that Mr Vu's family, with young children, would have 'so many large knives in the kitchen'.
She used the presence of the four knives to support the conviction and commented that one of them was blunt and rusty.
'Why all this attention to knives that have nothing to do with the case?' asked Mr Justice Power.
