An unemployed Hong Kong man, who drunkenly stabbed a stranger to death after failing to interrupt his conversation, was jailed for life on Tuesday. Lee Wai-man, 50, was unanimously convicted by a High Court jury for murdering Ting Yun-kwong, 54, who had asked him not to butt in to his conversation about wedding plans with his son at a Tai Po shopping centre on December 8, 2016. Defence counsel Alex Ng had tried to reduce the charge to manslaughter, to which Lee pleaded guilty, by arguing diminished responsibility. Ng claimed Lee had an irresistible craving to consume alcohol, which substantially impaired his mental responsibility for the crime. But the jury of six women and one man sided with prosecutors after three hours of deliberation on Tuesday afternoon. Murder suspect, 26, arrested at Hong Kong airport after body of father found Madam Justice Susana D’Almada Remedios said it was a tragic case in which Lee planned and initiated a revenge attack “wholly out of proportion” on a man he had met just three hours earlier because of a “very slight confrontation”. “This matter could have been resolved by you going home and going to bed,” the judge said. “There is only one sentence I can pass. You are sentenced to life imprisonment.” Lee frowned as he sat down in the dock. He had 15 previous convictions, the most recent one being for the possession of obscene articles for the purpose of publication, for which he was jailed in May 2014. Previous records showed he had a drug problem. The divorcee also told police he had joined a prominent triad society in 1988. At the trial, the court heard Lee was a heavy drinker who consumed more than 10 cans of beer daily and needed more than 15 to feel drunk. It was unclear how much he had consumed on the night he met Ting at the shopping centre in Fu Heng Estate, Tai Po. Man arrested over murder of wife and son at Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong Ting repeatedly told Lee to stop interrupting a private conversation before the latter turned aggressive and initiated a physical attack. After a third party intervened, Lee continued to interject and tried to butt in on the conversation by boasting of his triad ties and reciting their poems. That led to the pair fighting again, with Lee falling to the ground. He then returned home, changed his clothes and took out a knife before setting off to find Ting. Another fight followed. It ended up with Ting collapsed on a staircase in the shopping centre. He was certified dead upon arrival at Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital in Tai Po. An autopsy found he died of blood loss from a stab wound to his abdomen. His son, who had gone home after Lee first left the mall, said he deeply regretted not staying with Ting till the end of the night.