R v Al Batat & Ors

EX TEMPORE Judgment (REVISED)

1. The accused, Mr Ying Cheng Luo, sometimes referred to as "Johnny", raises an objection to certain evidence relied upon by the Prosecution as an admission by him. Mr Luo, along with five others, is charged with a series of offences arising out of two, or perhaps three, shooting incidents that occurred in January and February of 2017. The background is set out in other judgments, but in short, the matter involves the failure by the target of the shootings, Mr Jun Jia, to pay a drug debt to a man known as James Chen, and perhaps someone known as Jackie Chau or CC. It is alleged by the Prosecution that James took out a contract on Jun Jia's life and that Mr Luo accepted that contract and set about attempting to execute the contract by recruiting a number of others to assist him. This resulted in a failed attempt to shoot Mr Jia in the streets of Bexley North, and a second failed attempt to do the same at a premises in Guildford, which was set up as some sort of makeshift Buddhist temple according to the evidence.
2. There is a vast amount of evidence, and some of it I have read in the course of a number of pre-trial applications. The evidence to which objection is currently taken is in the statement of a witness called Wai Li. Ms Li was an associate of a number of the accused men, but in particular Mr Luo.
3. This statement forms part of the three volumes of material tendered by the Prosecution on the voir dire. It is a statement dated 1 May 2019: see Exhibit A, Volume 1, Tab 9. From about paragraph [96], Ms Li describes the events and interactions she had on the day before and the day of the shooting with another potential witness called Ada Chan. We heard from Ms Chan earlier on the voir dire, but her evidence is not important in the present context.
4. Ms Li describes communication she had on what is, on my reading of it, unquestionably the day after the alleged shooting on 1 February 2017. She discusses her communications with Ada and her baby-sitter's son, Daniel, who was asking her if she knew anything about an incident the night before during which somebody had died. After she spoke with the baby-sitter's son, she says in paragraph [99]: "After I spoke to Daniel on the phone, I sent a message to Johnny on WeChat and asked him what happened last night, as the person who got killed had nothing to do with the dispute involving Ada. At first Johnny sent a message saying 'ummm?' and pretended like he didn't know. I sent another message to Johnny saying 'it's impossible you don't know I have been told by others'. Johnny then sent me a message saying words to the effect of 'Dayu he's sick, he took out the gun and shot within minutes after they started to talk. He was going to kill Xiao Jun, but he killed the deceased (I don't know the name Johnny used for the deceased) by mistake'…"