The story of a wicked uncle who is alleged to have employed loafers to disfigure with nitric acid the face of his attractive 18 year old niece, a sing-song girl, was heard at the Mixed Court on Monday, when three men were charged on remand with causing grievous bodily harm to the young woman. Magistrate Kuan and Mr. Blackburn ordered a further remand in custody, to give the police an opportunity to apprehend the uncle and another Chinese believed to have bribed the three accused to commit the deed.
A detective-sergeant stated that on the night of August 17 the singsong girl was returning home from Wing On's, where her uncle had recently been employed. As she was passing the mouth of an alleyway in Hankow Road, some one threw, what she at first thought was water, over her. An instant. later she felt the burning effect of the acid and ran terrified into a Chinese restaurant. Here she fainted. Eventually she was sent to hospital. From statements taken from' the prisoners after their arrest, the motive for the crime became apparent. Since the death of the girl's father she hall lived with her uncle, a confirmed opium smoker, who worked on the roof garden. He obtained her a position there as a sing-song girl and had been, in the habit of taking her wages as well as his own. Some time before the acid, throwing incident, the man had lost his position. As his niece had also left Wing On's und went to live with her mother, he was naturally deprived of his opium. In. revenge he had planned through a middleman to blind the complainant. The prisoners, who had once before shadowed the girl, denied having thrown the acid.
The complainant corroborated the story told for the police, adding that it was only at first that she received no wages. Her uncle had said on one occasion: How dare you continue to sing while I am not still at Wing On's?"
The Bench said there was no direct evidence that either of the prisoners threw the acid. They, however, on their own admission were bad characters and the Bench were quite Drepsred to grant a remand in custody for a reasonable length of time. The accused were accordingly remanded for a fortnight.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.