Lawyers question Hong Kong judge’s jury directions in bid to overturn conviction in 2012 beauty treatment death
- Justice Judianna Barnes erred in both how she gave legal directions and presented evidence to the jury, defence team argues
- Dr Mak Wan-ling was given a 3 ½ year prison sentence last December in the death of 46-year-old Chan Yuen-lam, one of three women to fall ill after unproven treatments
Lawyers for a doctor jailed for killing a woman through gross negligence nine years ago in Hong Kong’s worst-ever beauty treatment mishap have argued the presiding judge erred both in how she gave legal directions to the jury and in summing up the evidence.
Dr Mak Wan-ling, 40, was sentenced to 3 ½ years in prison last December after a nine-member jury unanimously found her guilty of manslaughter in the 2012 death of Chan Yuen-lam, 46.
She was convicted in a retrial after a different High Court jury failed to reach a verdict in her case while finding her two co-defendants – Dr Stephen Chow Heung-wing, her 65-year-old boss, and technician Chan Kwun-chung, 34 – guilty of the same charge after a 100-day trial in 2017.
The deceased was among three women who fell seriously ill after receiving experimental injections – promoted as a way to improve immunity – administered by Mak a week earlier at one of the DR Group’s 38 beauty clinics.
At the Court of Appeal on Wednesday, Mak’s counsel, Peter Duncan SC, applied for leave to appeal, arguing that errors made by trial judge Madam Justice Judianna Barnes led to an unsafe conviction.