A 42-year-old man has been jailed for three years and two months after pleading guilty to wounding an acquaintance with intent to cause serious bodily harm and using a dangerous drug.
At about 2am on 28 July 2024, the man followed the victim and a woman from a flat and struck the victim’s head seven times with a hammer outside 61-63 Pilkem Street, Yau Ma Tei. Once the victim was on the ground, he hit him four more times.
The victim returned to the flat with a bleeding head and later took drugs to ease the pain. He became unconscious at about 5am; rescuers found him not breathing and he was pronounced dead in hospital. An autopsy report cited in court said the direct cause of death was an adverse reaction to methamphetamine and cocaine. The victim had five lacerations to the back of his head, but no skull fracture or brain injury. The wounds were not determined to have caused his death.
The original murder charge was changed to one count of wounding with intent to cause serious bodily harm and one count of dangerous-drug use after the death was attributed to the drug reaction rather than the head injuries. The defendant had admitted using methamphetamine at the flat the day before the attack.
The sentencing judge said the attack was disproportionate, particularly because the defendant continued after the victim was unable to defend himself, and increased the sentence because the defendant had 13 previous convictions covering 18 offences, including violent and drug-related offences, and reoffended about a year after leaving prison in July 2023.