A wheelchair-bound gangster, who has been in jail for 14 years, is appealing against his latest conviction of stabbing a prison officer with a ball point pen on the grounds that his disability prevents him from doing so.
Yip Kai-foon, 51, who was sentenced to a 36-year term in 1997 for kidnapping, possessing explosives, shooting at police, escaping from custody, and a bunch of other naughty things, is accused of attacking a correctional officer who was tending to his wounds in Stanley Prison in 2009.
Yip was handed an extra six months to add to his already hefty sentence, but has since appealed twice. However, he failed to attend court on both occasions because he says the police planned to tie him up like an animal.
He did manage to make it to Hong Kong’s High Court yesterday under heavy police guard.
He accused the magistrate of being unfair by not ordering a DNA test on the pen, even though the victim apparently didn’t bleed, and said his disability prevented him from being able to commit the offence.
“I can’t even sit properly, so how can I attack people? Anyone who walks only a few steps away is totally out of my reach,” he said, according to the SCMP.
The judge said he would send a copy of the ruling to the jail so Yip doesn’t have to bother himself with attending court again.
