A insomniac who claimed he assaulted a six-year-old boy with a screwdriver because he hadn’t slept for 24 hours was jailed for 16 months yesterday.
Chow Ka-lok, 40, saw his sentence reduced from two years at Kowloon City Court yesterday because he pleaded guilty grabbing the boy and pointing a screwdriver at his ear on Aug. 25.
Wong Shun-hei and his son were returning home along To Kwa Wan Road after a (very late) supper at 12:30am, when Chow threatened the boy with a 15-centimetre-long screwdriver.
The six-year-old suffered injuries to his ear and arms before the man was subdued by his father, reports the SCMP.
The court heard how the assault happened just 400 metres from where Chow had been thrown off a bus for wielding the same tool.
In mitigation, Chow’s counsel said that the unemployed man was an insomniac who hadn’t slept for 24 hours.
He also claimed that the boy called his client a “psycho” before the attack, but the victim and his father denied this, suggesting that Chow may have been suffering from hallucinations due to a drug problem.
Photo: (Illustration) Wikimedia Commmons
