REGINA v WANG [2000] NSWSC 447

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : REGINA v WANG [2000] NSWSC 447 CURRENT JURISDICTION: Common Law FILE NUMBER(S) : SC 70048/99 HEARING DATE(S) : 17.04.2000, 18.04.2000 JUDGMENT DATE : 23 May 2000

Regina

PARTIES : v

Joyes Hong WANG JUDGMENT OF : Adams J at 1

COUNSEL : Mr W Dawe QC (Crown) Mr Phillip Segal (Accused) S E O'Conner (Crown) SOLICITORS : Barber & Massey (Accused) CATCHWORDS : Sentence - manslaughter - substantial impairment of mental capacity - depression - attempted suicide - relevance of general and personal deterrance - role of denunication in sentencing LEGISLATION CITED : Crimes Act 1900 DECISION : See paragraph 39

THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COMMON LAW DIVISION CRIMINAL REGISTRY

ADAMS J

TUESDAY 23 MAY 2000 70049/99 REGINA v JOYES HONG WANG JUDGMENT ON SENTENCE

1 HIS HONOUR: On 17 April 2000 the offender, Joyes Hong Wang, was arraigned upon an indictment containing two counts of murder, the first alleging that between 22 and 24 September 1998 at Padstow in the State of New South Wales she murdered Yujian Alan Wong (who was her husband) and the second, that between the same dates and at the same place she murdered Shi Rui (Serena) Wang (who was her daughter then just short of two years old). To each of these charges she pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty of manslaughter, which pleas were accepted in full discharge of the indictment. The Crown's contention, so far as the death of the husband is concerned, is that but for the provisions of s 23A of the Crimes Act 1900 (the Act), which permits a verdict of manslaughter where the offender's mental capacity in relevant respects is substantially impaired by an abnormality of mind, the offender would have been liable to be convicted of murder as having, at least, caused his death with the intention of causing grievous bodily harm or being recklessly indifferent to human life. So far as the death of the child is concerned, the Crown submitted that manslaughter was also applicable by virtue of the operation of s 23A of the Act but the death of the child was intentional. On behalf of the offender, it is conceded that she intended to kill the child and is guilty of manslaughter by virtue of s 23A of the Act but it is submitted that she is guilty of the manslaughter of the husband upon the basis that the act causing death was unlawful and dangerous rather than having been accompanied by a state of mind which, apart from s 23A, would have made her liable to be convicted of murder. 2 At about 10.25am on Thursday 23 September 1998 two police officers attended at premises at Padstow, having been called there by a Mr Tran who had some acquaintance with the deceased. The building was a factory containing also some domestic premises in which the offender lived with her husband and daughter. The police, together with two ambulance officers, obtained access to the building and commenced a search. After a little time, one of the ambulance officers forced open the locked door to a bedroom. Inside was the husband lying on the floor with a quilt covering most of his body. Both his ankles were tied with flat woven cord. Similar cord was found wrapped four times tightly around the husband's neck with one granny knot at the front to the right of the midline and another at the back to the left of the midline. In the left forehead region above the eyebrow was a full thickness 20mm laceration and bruising around the left eye. On the chin, 30mm below the lower lip was a 10mm x 5mm abrasion but there were no injuries to the mouth. There were a number of other relatively minor injuries on the deceased's arms, trunk and legs. At autopsy, bruises of around 100mm in diameter were found on the scalp in about the left and right parietal regions. It is clear that he died from strangulation. I will return in due course to the significance of these injuries. 3 The husband's body was discovered at 10.50am. Other police came to the scene shortly thereafter and a further search of the premises was undertaken. Just after 11pm two police officers climbed up to a storage area located above the kitchen and, on forcing the door, found the offender lying on a foam mattress on the floor, apparently unconscious. She was covered with a doona which was splattered with blood. Next to her was her baby daughter lying on her back, and wearing over some underwear, a red jumpsuit, multicoloured red socks and red shoes. The offender was wearing a red dress. A police officer lifted her hand, I take it to check her pulse, and saw a puncture wound surrounded by dry blood inside the offender's right wrist. The offender opened her eyes and said, "I want to be with my daughter". She raised her right arm and, placing it on her dead child said, "I love you, I want to die". She added, "I want to be with my daughter, she's waiting for me". There were a number of medicine bottles and empty blister packs lying on the floor near the offender together with a glass in which was a residue of white powder. The ambulance officers noted that the offender was conscious and able to communicate but would neither confirm nor deny any drug overdose. She stated that she did not want any help but wanted to stay with her daughter. She said that her daughter was her "whole life" and, when told that she was dead, said that she knew it would be so and wept. A bloodstained knife was found nearby. 4 The offender was taken immediately to hospital and was treated for a drug overdose. Her right wrist was sutured and she was released several days later into the custody of police. Before her release from hospital the offender was interviewed by police during which she became, at times, hysterical. The police officers were suspicious that this behaviour was feigned or, at least, exaggerated but I do not think that this is the case, though it may have been to some degree voluntary. 5 When the offender was asked by police what she could tell them about what had happened she said, "I didn't have the intention to kill my husband. That was an accident. I only wanted to kill the two of us, my child and myself." She told the police officers that she had tied her husband up because she was afraid that he might prevent her from killing her daughter and herself. She said that she put two sleeping pills in the soup which she had made for him and, when he fell asleep, tied him to the bed. Quite how he came to be in the bedroom is not clear. However, he woke up after she had only tied both his hands and one foot. The offender said that she then told her husband that she was going to die, that he asked her not to kill herself and started to scream. She said that she found a stick and hit him on the head intending to render him unconscious but this was unsuccessful. He continued to struggle and the offender believed that he thought that she intended to kill him also. She said that he kicked out at her and she struck him on the legs. She said that he kept screaming and "we talked about what had happened in the past". When she realised that it was morning and she might lose her chance of committing suicide (because employees might start arriving) she said that she decided to gag him but as she did so, her husband kept struggling. She said the rope slipped down to his neck, "at that time, I kept pulling and he kept struggling, struggling, struggling. I kept pulling him. I didn't want him to struggle. He kept struggling and screaming." At one stage, she said that she had untied one of his bonds and that he jumped up and kept screaming. She had some recollection of striking him perhaps with a beer glass. She said: "I didn't want him to die. I only wanted myself to die. I only have one request. Sentence me to death. I only have this request. I want to go with my baby. My baby needs me to look after her. I must go." 6 The offender said that she killed her daughter by giving her two mouthfuls of medicine, which she then took herself, that she then fell asleep and knew nothing more until the police came. When asked why she killed her daughter she said - "Because my husband said that he would send my daughter back to the mainland. Because my daughter cannot move, cannot do what she...she doesn't know anything. No one but I loved her. She couldn't go without me. Only I loved her. Because I loved her, I couldn't leave her." 7 On 13 October 1998 police again interviewed the offender at Burwood Police Station. In effect, she said that it was difficult for her to recall the events relating to her husband's and her daughter's death because she became too upset. However, she reiterated, in effect, that she had not intended to kill her husband. She explained that she managed to get into the storage area by climbing on top of a wardrobe and using a knotted rope to support her, managed to get herself into the room. It appears that she had used a ladder from the factory to get into the room, attached the rope ladder to a fixture, then, returning the ladder to the factory, used the rope to clamber in. She did this so that she could not be found. As the interview continued she became able to describe how she had given her daughter the tablets. When she was asked why she said - "Because my daughter was very, very sick, she's got the brain, cerebral palsy and also my husband said once that if I die, he's going to take my daughter back to China and put her in the orphans' centre and I wouldn't want that to happen so I took her with me because my daughter is very disabled."