A father who successfully fought off cancer must spend the next 10 years of his life behind prison bars after he beat and kicked another man into a vegetative state. Yuen Wai-kui, 41, ignored the pleas from a passer-by who screamed at him to stop kicking Yuen Sing-fat, 56, on a Mongkok footpath on January 5 last year. The Court of First Instance heard that despite blood pouring from the victim's ears as he lay unconscious on the ground, Yuen continued to attack. In jailing Yuen yesterday after he pleaded guilty to one count of causing grievous bodily harm, Madam Justice Claire Marie Beeson said it was a 'vicious and sustained' attack carried out against a man who was retreating. She said the sentence contained an element of deterrence to 'discourage people from thinking that this is the fit and proper way of dealing with a trivial dispute'. The court was told the men had had previous run-ins after the defendant took Mr Yuen to the Labour Tribunal for failing to pay his wages over a decoration contract. On the day of the attack, the men met in a Mongkok restaurant to discuss the payment but Yuen stormed out of the restaurant after Mr Yuen said he wanted to pay in two instalments. Ms Beeson said a witness told the court she did not see who threw the first punch, but instead saw the defendant lashing out with his fists and feet at Mr Yuen who was retreating with his hands held up. 'This sentence is at the top of the range because of the nature of the injuries caused and the fact that the defendant did not have the good sense to listen to people saying stop,' she said. Mr Yuen was rushed to hospital where doctors found he had three cracked ribs and his skull was fractured. An emergency brain operation was performed after blood clots were discovered and Mr Yuen was placed on a ventilator. On October 31 last year, doctors assessed Mr Yuen as being in a 'permanent vegetative state'. He is now cared for by his wife. The court had heard Yuen, a husband and father of an 11-year-old boy, had undergone six chemotherapy treatments and two operations for rectal cancer in the two years before the incident.
