Hong Kong protests: chef jailed for more than six years over ‘senseless’ knife attack on student near Tai Po Lennon Wall in 2019
- High Court judge Andrew Chan says the attack by defendant Liu Guosheng was premeditated, with an intention ‘to kill’ the 19-year-old victim
- He jailed Liu for six years and four months, having reduced the sentence from 10 years to reflect a timely guilty plea and his surrender to police
High Court judge Andrew Chan Hing-wai said on Friday that defendant Liu Guosheng had planned the assault in Tai Po on October 19, 2019, as shown by his purchase of a fruit knife with an 11cm blade immediately after crossing the border from mainland China a day earlier.
Initially charged with attempted murder, the 24-year-old cook from Guangxi pleaded guilty last month to the lesser charge of wounding with intent for slashing and stabbing the victim, referred to in court as X.
Liu launched his attack randomly on X after others at the scene had confronted and scolded the mainlander for tearing down political posters from a so-called Lennon Wall – a public display of messages supportive of the protests – in an underpass outside Tai Po Market MTR station.
“The offence was not committed on the spur of the moment. The level of aggression was high. The defendant was also persistent in his attack,” Chan said in sentencing. “The intention as manifested in his action was clear. It was to kill.”
