A Hong Kong man has been sentenced to an indefinite period at a psychiatric hospital for stabbing his father to death while experiencing schizophrenia.
The High Court on Friday accepted two psychiatrists’ recommendations to impose a hospital order on Lee Man-lok, 35, on a count of manslaughter based on diminished responsibility.
The court accepted Lee’s plea in June after psychiatric evidence showed his mental illness had substantially impaired his ability to make rational judgments and exercise self-control when he fatally assaulted his 78-year-old father, Lee Hok-choi, on October 11, 2021.
It also heard that Lee, who was staying at a rehabilitation hostel in Nam Cheong at the time, had stopped working as a clerk, as well as contacting his family, and started skipping medication before the offence.
He stabbed and slashed his father more than 80 times with two knives he had originally bought as gifts for the deceased, following a quarrel over work issues at the family home in Kwai Chung’s Yin Lai Court.
Police and paramedics arrived at the scene around 4.45pm that day to find the father lying unconscious in a pool of blood in the living room and the defendant sitting on a sofa with two bloodstained fruit knives beside him.
The victim was pronounced dead at hospital in the early hours of the following day after his other family members agreed to stop resuscitating him.
