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A 45-year-old businessman has been sentenced to five years and four months in prison after attempting to kill his wife and three daughters by burning charcoal before putting out the fire himself at their flat in Tuen Mun two years ago.
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The defendant, surnamed Wong, had previously pleaded guilty to four counts of attempted murder.
The court heard that on June 25, 2024, Wong initially spiked his family’s dinner with sleeping pills at their home in King On House, Shan King Estate. However, unable to bear the thought of his family dying with him, he doused the charcoal with water in the early hours of the morning and left the premises.
He was arrested later that afternoon and confessed that severe financial pressure stemming from his struggling food distribution business, as well as fear of debt collectors harassing his family, had driven him to the criminal act.
In sentencing on Monday, High Court Judge Douglas Yau Tak-hong said that Wong, who suffers from depression, acted out of desperation after his family received threatening phone calls.
Yau commended Wong for stepping back from the brink by extinguishing the fire, and accepted that Wong was a responsible husband and loving father who diligently supported his family. He also considered that Wong’s family had not suffered any long-term physical or mental harm.
Yau nevertheless stressed that a deterrent sentence was necessary due to the breach of family trust. Taking an eight-year prison term as the starting point, he applied full credit for Wong’s guilty pleas and ordered that the sentences for all four charges run concurrently.
Yau added that while the case was a tragedy, fortunately no lives were lost. He said he believed Wong would no longer have to face his struggles alone now that he had accepted help and his family had recognized the issue, and that it was not too late for him to find a way forward.
