A British barrister who admitted being ”drunk as a monkey” during a Hong Kong court case last year has been let off on a charge of assaulting a policeman, a news report said on Wednesday.
Roderick Murray (46) was arrested for assault following a disturbance in a supermarket near his home last October when he allegedly pushed groceries and two bottles of wine to the floor.
The Scottish barrister, who worked as a government prosecutor until shortly before the incident, brawled with two policemen called to the scene and was arrested for assault and resisting arrest.
However, at a court case on Monday the prosecution dropped its case against Murray after he agreed to be bound over to keep the peace for 12 months.
The court heard Murray was suffering from psychiatric illness and was receiving counselling and was no longer working as a barrister because of his health.
Prosecutor Edward Brook told the court: ”Mr Murray is a person who requires treatment and help, not prosecution and punishment.”
In his last case as a government prosecutor last August, Murray told reporters he was ”drunk as a monkey” after giggling and fidgeting his way through a judge’s summing up in a smuggling case.
He drummed his fingers on the table, sighed loudly and then gave a sarcastic round of applause when the judge congratulated one defendant on kicking his drug addiction.
Judge Chua Fi-lan was forced to order a recess and Murray was later suspended from prosecuting and reported to the Bar Council, which launched an investigation into his behaviour.
After the hearing, Murray told reporters he had been having trouble with his fiancée and had drunk ”two dry martinis and a couple of beers” during the lunchtime recess.
Asked about his behaviour he said: ”You have to hear a lot of bullshit in court … I think I should be reported to the Bar Association. But nobody is going to strike me off.”
Murray, who was born in Libya and came to Hong Kong in 1963, qualified as a barrister at the University of Southampton in the UK before being called to the Bar in Hong Kong in 1982. – Sapa-DPA