In a recent legal proclamation, Hong Kong Coroner’s Court ruled the death of a homeless man while under the custody of the Correctional Services Department (CSD) a case of suicide. This ruling was declared on the universally agreed upon consensus of five jurors who deduced that the deceased committed suicide through the process of intermittent self-strangulation using his own trousers.
The preliminary causes of death identified in the forensic report were neck pressurisation, self-strangulation and coronary atherosclerotic heart disease. In his directions to the jury, Coroner Raymund Chow clarified that the evidence exclusively indicated suicide and if the jury failed to establish beyond reasonable doubt that the deceased committed suicide, they could only render an open verdict.
The jury made some important suggestions regarding the need to revisit underequipped admission wards, where only four officers are considered insufficient. The jury recommended that the CSD should appraise the possibility of recruiting extra assistants for the admission wards in the Psychiatric Centre. Furthermore, instead of mere observation through video surveillance, the CSD should make sure that officers actively inspect the wards every 15 minutes.
Some expression of disappointment arose from the ruling for it implied that no one was accountable for the lack of human resources and the poor video surveillance quality in the CSD.
Prior to the incident, the deceased was at the centre of an alleged homeless assault case in February 2020. Eight police officers were accused of assaulting the homeless, including the deceased, and damaging their properties. The deceased was even allegedly falsely accused of drug possession but the charges were later dropped. The officers are now being charged with “doing an act or a series of acts tending and intended to pervert the course of public justice”, with the trial scheduled for January 2024.
In September 2020, the deceased was later once again charged with drug possession. Due to his previous history of self-destructive behaviour during detentions, he was kept in the Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre. Sadly, he was later found dead in a protection cell on October 9, 2020.