TUCKED away in a disused cell at Stanley Prison, the last known cane used to flog the backsides of Hong Kong offenders is now idle and impotent.
But its chilling past and potential to inflict pain can be starkly demonstrated.
Over a metre long and smoothly hewn, the rattan cane nestled snugly in the palm of H. S. Rutton's right hand yesterday.
He raised it high above his head, paused and grimaced. For a split-second it hung limply. Then, with all his might, the longtime Correctional Services Department (CSD) officer brought it crashing down.
It split the air with a whoosh before smashing on to a table. Mr Rutton, now head of the CSD Staff Training Institute at Stanley, wiped his forehead before repeating the effort, thankful that his blow was not aimed at bare skin.
''I hate this thing. I have seen what it does to its victims,'' Mr Rutton, an officer with almost a quarter-century of CSD service, recalled yesterday.