A DELIVERY worker was acquitted yesterday of conspiracy to maliciously wound Appeal Court Judge Mr Justice Litton because the evidence ''did not bear any relationship to the charge as laid''. District Court Judge Caird found that the Crown had failed to establish the charge. Lee Wing-pui, 24, was acquitted after the finding was delivered. He then dashed out of the dock and shook hands with his counsel, Lambert Lee. ''I am very happy. The matter had been hanging over my head for more than a year. The judge was fair and just,'' Mr Lee Wing-pui said. He had denied a charge of conspiracy to maliciously wound Henry Litton, 57, with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. Judge Caird said there were two aspects of the evidence which concerned him. One was that the charge specified that the person to wound was ''Henry Litton'', when evidence said that Mr Lee was asked to find someone to harm an unspecified lawyer in Central. The second concern was that the charge stated ''grievous bodily harm'', when the evidence showed ''assault occasioning actual bodily harm''. The judge found that despite this the Crown took ''a quantum leap'' to specify the victim and maintain the grievous bodily harm, which did not support the evidence at the trial. Mr Justice Litton, who was a practising Queen's Counsel at the time of the incident, was stabbed in the buttock at about 6.30 pm on June 30 last year as he bent down to enter his car near Statue Square. He felt a heavy blow and spun around to see a man running away. At his feet he found a 17-centimetre knife. He chased the man but lost him. He was treated at Adventist Hospital. The reason for the attack has never been known, although Mr Justice Litton said in his statement that the attacker might have been deranged. Mr Lee allegedly told police he was asked by a man known as ''Ah Ban'' to find someone to harm a person in Central. Ah Ban had been prepared to pay $20,000. The defendant had allegedly introduced someone known as ''Ah Sang'' to Ah Ban but, after checking out the area, Ah Sang declined. Ah Ban had told Mr Lee he would find someone else. The court heard that Mr Justice Litton received a message from his telephonist at 3.15 pm on June 29 last year. He was told a male Chinese caller had warned that something would happen to him unless he left his Prince's Building chambers by 3.30 pm. Later at 10 pm at his home he received a further cryptic telephone call from an unknown caller speaking in broken English. He was stabbed the next day. Valerie Penlington prosecuted in Mr Lee's case. Film producer Leung Ting-fong, 26, was acquitted last month when the Crown failed to find a key witness. The Crown offered no evidence against him.
