Mentally ill man jailed for more than four years over petrol bomb attacks on Hong Kong police stations
- Lucas Chong, a diagnosed schizophrenic, was sentenced to 52 months at District Court
- The unemployed 25-year-old threw bombs at police headquarters in Wan Chai and Happy Valley Police Station last year
A mentally ill man who hurled two petrol bombs outside two police stations in Hong Kong was on Tuesday jailed for more than four years, after a judge rejected pleas to send him to a psychiatric hospital.
Lucas Chong Yam-miu, a diagnosed schizophrenic, was sentenced at District Court on charges stemming from the incidents on June 7 last year, when he set fires outside Wan Chai police headquarters and Happy Valley Police Station.
Chong was also fined HK$5,000 (US$645) over traffic and drug offences he committed on the same day.
The court heard the unemployed 25-year-old, who had five previous convictions, was angry with police over past brushes with the law. Before the incident, he had reportedly heard voices and felt police had provoked him.
In an earlier hearing, Chong’s lawyer, Oliver Davies, asked that his client be sent to a specialist facility, but District Judge Pang Chung-ping denied that request after hearing evidence from Chong’s psychiatrist that his condition had improved.
Prosecutors told Pang the case was unrelated to triad activities or last year’s anti-government protests, but the judge said the case was still very serious.
“His attacks were direct attacks on the rule and order of Hong Kong,” Pang said. “This kind of violence is totally intolerable and must be condemned.”