A Disenchanted World

Day before yesterday, I wrote about the enchanted world of photography, poetry and music of some of our fellow bloggers but yesterday, I was forcibly pulled into a disenchanted world. It was the world of the criminals. I went to one of the local magistracies. I was a duty lawyer. I like being one. This is my only chance of meeting all kinds of people at the margin of society: drug addicts, old ladies and old men on social security, kitchen workers, casual laborers, truck attendants, unemployed and unemployable middle aged men and women with no particular skills and even less hope, young and not so young ladies from various PRC villages or small towns who came to Hong Kong on short holidays nominally as "visitors" but working as prostitutes, middle-aged or old local men and women or some from the PRC who sold non-duty paid cigarettes, husbands and wives who beat each other up during the heat of domestic disputes, teenage boys who got into fights either at school or in the streets, boys or men who sold pornographic or pirated videos, small time shop keepers who sold fake brand-name handbags or ladies fashion, housewives who stole candies, biscuits, milk powder or frozen meat from supermarkets or 7-11s etc., teenage girls or boys who ran away from their homes and were subsequently found by the police at cyber cafes, playgrounds or some Mongkok or New Territories flats. It was a world very different from the middle class world of church going office workers. This is a world of unwashed or knotty hair or golden or brown hair, tatty clothes, shabby shoes,  filthy Japanese sandals, smelly bodies, dirty finger nails or discolored or scratched gel nails, cheap perfumes, false eye lashes or lash extensions, tawdry plastic or metal trinkets, sores or skin calluses, sunken cheeks, sick bodies and probably sick minds. It is a world of meanness, greed, drugs, violence, fear, ignorance, humuliation, disgrace, recklessness, desperation or emotional numbness. This is a world of failures, of the neglected, of those who have lost hope, either for the moment or permanently, of people at the end of their tethers. It's a world of unwelcome social reality. It is a world of disenchantment.

Yesterday morning wasn't too bad. I got about 8 cases. On busy days, I could easily have done maybe 12 cases or more. I won't go into details. I cannot. But I was very surprised at having two cases both concerning taking pictures of the private parts of women with an I-phone.

The first involved C1. He took three photos of a lady from beneath her skirt whilst going up an MTR escalator. He entered the interview room. I saw a young man in late 20s, a roundish face, big fleshy nose, thick lips, big black bushy eyebrows, with a thick head of stiff straight hair, about 5 foot 7 or 8. The Court Liaison Officer ("CLO") had already taken some preliminary information from him regarding his age, address, contact telephone number, employment, educational level, brief partculars of his marital status and family and previous convictions if any. etc. He was working as a clerk in finance company earning about $11,000 a month and is married with no children. I looked at the information relating to his wife. She earns $15,000 a month. I looked at his eyes. They were small and unfocused. He looked preoccupied and despondent.

I told the young man that since he had no previous conviction, is married, has a decent job and there were only three photos not of very good quality about a non celebrity not showing much so that there was little chance of its being of sufficient interest to be used for wide distribution on the internet and there was no evidence that what he had caused any serious panic or trauma to the victim, he would probably get off with probation or a community service order. I asked him if he had any marital difficulties such that he could not have sex with his wife at the time of the offence and had to obtain alternative satisfaction of his sexual needs. He bowed down his head and said, quietly no. I asked him if the girl whose photos he had taken was particularly sexy, with big boobs and bottoms, narrow waist, dressed in tightfitting clothes, had a pretty face and shapely legs etc so that he was tempted to do something. With a head still lowered, he answered "Yes, she got very good figure and pretty legs and was wearing short pants". I then asked him how many inches above her knees was the hemline of her skirt. He said 6 inches. I asked him why he did what he did. He said he did not have any particular reason. I asked him if he found the girl particularly sexually attractive so that he had a bodily reaction. He said he did and as he said so, I could see he was fidgeting in his seat and playing with his fingers. I asked him if he felt sorry for what he did and how he intended to use the photos. He said he was very sorry but only did so out of curiosity and had no intention of posting it on the internet! I thought I had sufficient information for a mitigation and asked him if there was anything else he liked me to know so that I could help him in getting a lighter sentence. I said it was possible that before sentencing, the magistrate would ask for a probation or community service report to get some more information about him before deciding and that if so, the case would probably be adjourned for two weeks to enable the relevant reports to be prepared. He said he had none but asked me if it was possible that his family be kept in the dark about the whole incident. I did not know what was on his mind. Shame? Inability to face his wife? Inability to face his own parents and other relatives and friends? God knows. I told him it seemed a little too late to worry about that now and that he should go and wait inside the court now.

In the second case, the defendant C2 was similarly aged but I was told that he was mentally retarded. I asked to see the evidence. He had a mental age of between 5 to 11 under various measures, including that of social skill. He was accompanied into the room by another young lady. I asked her how she was related to him. She told me she was a social welfare worker. I asked if any member of his family was with him. She said his mother was. I asked why she was not with him. Then some one asked her to come in. The mother hurried in and sat by his side, anxiety-ridden but apologetic. I explained to them how his mental retardation can be used in deciding his culpability and in mitigation and whether his mental incapacity in this case could or could not be used to defeat the the legal requirements for mens rea (guilty mind) but first I asked him if he understood what I was talking about. He nodded his head. He was small for his age, had a tapered face, straight nose, full lower lips and small beady eyes. He was sitting close to the edge of the seat, with stooped shoulders, completely demoralized. In this case, he followed a girl into the ladies toilet and took a number of pictures of her peeing. After a number of questions, I managed to discover that he had a girl friend for some two months but she left him in January this year after which he fell into a profound depression. The girl whom he followed was in fact introduced to him by his ex girl friend . He had a crush on her but not she him. I asked him if he knew what he did was wrong. He nodded his head. I asked him not to worry and that I would do my best to ensure that he would not go to jail and that the chances of his going to jail was very remote. A flicker of a smile appeared  on his face for the first time. I asked the CLO if they had talked to the prosecution about dropping the case and instead deal with it by way of a voluntary binding over order. I was told that the Prosecution had been approached and the CLO was told that they had already considered that option but after taking legal advice, they decided to press ahead. I asked them to try again and said that if necessary I could talk to the Chief Court Prosecutor. I learned later that they would not reconsider and would not talk to me. Probably he did not want the bother of having to write another report to justifiy his decision.

In the event, the magistrate adjourned both cases for probation officer's reports and in the case of the mentally retarded young man also for a psychiatric report and granted both of them bail pending sentence. I think it is most unlikely that either of them will be put behind bars after two weeks. The cases set me thinking. Whilst Nature equips us with sexual urges, not every one has the necessary language and/or social skills or sufficient financail resources to make their satisfaction possible. For such unfortunate souls, the line between their desire and the obscure and uncanny routes by which such desire find criminal satisfaction is thin indeed.. But what else can I do but hope that somehow they shall not have to suffer more than they do within that impenetrable mystery of the twists and turns of our impersonal and bureacuractic criminal law system?