Court of Final Appeal Decision
Voluntariness of Oral Admissions

On 17th September 2014, Morley Chow Seto represented a Defendant in an appeal at the Court of Final Appeal which will be of importance to all criminal defence lawyers defending clients alleged to have made oral admissions at the scene. The issue turned on whether a trial judge should direct a jury to consider whether an oral admission denied by a Defendant was made voluntarily. The trial judge had only directed the jury to consider whether the oral admission had in fact been made, but had not directed the jury to consider whether it was made voluntarily. Five Judges of the Court of Final Appeal (Chief Justice Ma, Mr Justice Tang PJ, Mr Justice Fok PJ, Mr Justice Chan NPJ and Sir Anthony Mason NPJ) unanimously allowed the appeal handled by our Anita Chow instructing barrister Richard Wong.

Please navigate to HKSAR v. PANG HIU SAN FACC3/2014 to see the full CFA judgment.

NOTE: At a subsequent re-trial before Madam Justice Poon and a jury in June 2015 the Defendant was unanimously acquitted of the charge. The re-trial was handled by our Anita Chow and Eric Tang instructing barrister Richard Wong.