An unlicensed hawker was jailed for a year today after admitting to pushing an enforcement officer who hit his head and later died.
Rashid Khan, 37, earlier pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter following the tragic accident on March 15 last year.
The Pakistani-born Hong Kong resident was selling hats in On Lok Yuen Building, Central, when 58-year-old Wu Kwong-sum from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department tried to get him to move on.
A tussle ensued, and Khan pushed Wu to try and get away. Wu fell and hit his head on the pavement, and died two days later after emergency surgery on his fractured skull.
In sentencing today, High Court Deputy Judge Brian Keith accepted that the death was an accident.
“You did not intend to harm Mr Wu, let alone to push him in such a way that will put his life in danger,” he told Khan, according to the SCMP.
Talking about CCTV video of the incident, he added, “The footage shows it was not a particularly hard push…[It was] no harder than was needed … for him to let go of you.”
During mitigation, Khan’s council read a letter from a teacher who regaled how the father of two had once come into the school because he heard his son had been pushed. Despite seeing his son pushed right in front of him, Khan apparently stayed calm and even asked the teachers not to punish the student because the child has mental problems.
The judge, however, insisted Khan must be punished for the crime, and jailed him for 12 months.
