覃有方

English

David Chum Yau-fong is a magistrate in Hong Kong, born in Hong Kong in 1969. He obtained an LL.B. from the University of London in 1996, a Postgraduate Certificate in Laws from the University of Hong Kong in 1999 and a Master of Science in Forensic and Legal Psychology from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom in 1999. He was called to the Hong Kong Bar that same year and has been in private practice since 2000. On 17 September 2012 he was appointed a Permanent Magistrate, by the Chief Executive on the recommendation of the Judicial Officers Recommendation Commission. Besides his law degree, Chum holds a master's degree in forensic and legal psychology, a specialist combination of psychology and law that is uncommon among judicial officers and is particularly relevant to cases concerning the credibility of witnesses, mental state or the psychology of offending. He sits at Tuen Mun Magistrates' Courts and has also heard cases at Sha Tin, dealing with a wide range of matters. The magistracy is Hong Kong's court of first instance for criminal matters. All judges and judicial officers are appointed by the Chief Executive on the independent recommendation of the Judicial Officers Recommendation Commission, under the Basic Law, whose Articles 88 and 92 set out the recommendation mechanism and the criteria for selection. Chum has heard cases of conspiracy to defraud involving the ding rights of indigenous villagers in the New Territories: in one such case, where the defendant was accused of using the ding rights system for gain, he said at sentencing that the background of the offence was serious and caused injustice to society, warranting a deterrent sentence, but having regard to the defendant's health he imposed a custodial term suspended. The case shows that the magistracy also deals with matters involving complex historical and land interests.