Unemployed man jailed for life after faking mental illness in brutal axe killing

An unemployed man was sentenced to life imprisonment on Wednesday (Jan 14) for the random killing of a man in his 70s at a Tuen Mun park five years ago, after a jury unanimously found him guilty of murder.

The High Court heard that the 35-year-old defendant, Mang Yat-lam, who traded foreign exchange for a living, attacked the victim with an axe at a pavilion in a playground on Hoi Chu Road near the Fung King Estate Light Rail stop on August 5, 2021.

The victim and the defendant were strangers with no known connection. The defendant fatally attacked the victim, who was later found lying in a pool of blood with severe head and neck injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The defendant admitted killing the man but denied murder, claiming he was suffering from schizophrenia and schizotypal personality disorder at the time and should be convicted of manslaughter. He also told police and doctors that he heard voices instructing him to kill.

Two government psychiatrists testified that he did not suffer from psychosis and had never taken psychiatric medication, concluding that the killing was caused by personality and antisocial traits rather than mental illness. After a 12-day trial, the jury rejected his defense of diminished responsibility.

In sentencing, Judge Anthony Kwok Kai-on described the attack as “extremely brutal,” noting that the victim’s injuries showed he was almost decapitated. He said the crime had caused irreparable harm to the victim’s family and that the defendant must bear full legal responsibility for his “extreme and antisocial” conduct.