A HONG KONG man was given an extraordinary 126 strokes of the rattan cane, mostly because he was destitute and begged for money.
The little-known agony of Lee Shu-chung was recalled by a former magistrate, Alberto Sanguinetti, who said it demonstrated that caning was not an effective deterrent.
The case highlights the tough line on caning before the 1990 abolition of corporal punishment and makes it harder for the Government to justify a clemency appeal to Singapore for Shiu Chi-ho, 17, sentenced to 12 strokes for spray-painting cars, say legal sources.
By the time vagrant Lee was in his early 20s he had received a total of 126 strokes for 30 convictions, chiefly for begging for alms, according to court records dating back to 1960.
Lee was aged nine when a magistrate directed a court inspector to inflict eight strokes. Thirteen years later, he came before Mr Sanguinetti in South Kowloon Court on two charges relating to stealing goods from delivery vans.
Mr Sanguinetti told the court: ''There are two schools of thought and many will disagree with me about corporal punishment - but this shows what deterrent effect corporal punishment has.
