The Complaining Solicitor Clerk
Below is the evidence in relation to a key ICAC witness in HKSAR v Kanjapanas, Chong Kwong Derek & Ors, quoted in the judgment of Tang VP. The witness in question, N, was a solicitor clerk who worked in the D2's solicitors firm.
The evidence of Clement on N provides a useful insight into N's character, I will quote the relevant evidence in full:
Q. He left the firm - and I'm using a neutral term - in May of last year.
A. Yes.
Q. And in recent times has there been serious unpleasantness between Mr N and you, your partner and the firm?
A. Yes, he's made about 20 criminal complaints, I think, perhaps a few more, I'm not sure.
Q. Well, I'm going to go into some of those in due course. Do you now know that man to be a busybody?
A. That would be a fair description, yes.
Q. A troublemaker?
A. I would say so.
Q. A person with a ...
COURT: Sorry, one moment, 'busybody and troublemaker'. Yes.
Q. A man with a highly vivid and fertile imagination.
A. I would say so.
Q. A person capable of making up wild stories.
A. Certainly, in my view of all his criminal complaints, yes.
Q. An expression that you and I will be familiar with, but I'm not sure that it translates ...
COURT: Sorry, just one moment. These are criminal complaints against your firm?
A. Yes.
COURT: And against you, personally.
A. Well, against me and Massie personally, yes.
Q. His Honour will be familiar with the phrase but I'm not sure that it translates into Cantonese, would you describe him as a 'Walter Mitty' character?
A. That would be a fair description, I think.
Q. Someone who lives in a dream world.
A. On occasions, I would think so, yes.
Q. Now, pausing there, for a moment.
…
Q. Mr Clement, before that break you were telling us that you have been the subject of complaints of a criminal nature made by Mr N.
A. Yes.
Q. Would it be correct to say that there have been a multiplicity of complaints?
A. I think he's at more than 20 at the moment, yes.
Q. In summary, can I put this to you, he has made complaints against you and/or your partner, and/or your firm of fraud, perverting the course of justice, assault, criminal intimidation, tax fraud and breaching the Witness Protection Ordinance, which is Cap. 564 of the Laws of Hong Kong.
A. Yes, that's right, and a lot more.
Q. These complaints are both spiteful and vindictive.
A. I would say so.
Q. And that he has told you and your partner, both to your face and to others that he's going to have you sent to jail.
A. Oh, yes.
Q. To your knowledge, has he also in recent years made complaints of a criminal nature against counsel?
A. Yes.
Q. Against other solicitors?
A. Yes.
Q. Against security guards and supermarkets, more than once?
A. Yes.
Q. Even against ICAC officers.
A. Yes, and also against consulting physicians as well.
COURT: Also about?
A. Consulting physicians.
Q. To your knowledge, has he also made complaints, not necessarily to the police, against at least one High Court judge?
A. Yes, he did, yes.
Q. Solicitors, counsel?
A. Yes, immigration officials and ...
Q. Immigration officers.
A. Yes. Legal Aid officers, Legal Aid solicitors.
Q. To your knowledge, has he manipulated others formerly employed by your firm to make similar complaints?
A. Yes, we've also had a number of complaints made by ex-members of staff that to my view were very much creatures of Mr N.
Q. Is it your understanding that Mr N makes these complaints on a regular basis at Central Police Station where they must be sick of the sight of him?
A. Yes, and also to the MPF, and the Labour Authority and various other places, I believe.
Q. Have you now been given to understand that, on legal advice, the police are no longer taking his complaints seriously?
A. I think there are still a few that they've not got round to finalising yet but certainly in respect of about 15, and I think there's another recent tranche that haven't yet been yet finalised, those are the ones I know of.
Q. I think not all of those complaints were made after he left your firm, some were made before.
A. All the ones against me and Massie I believe to have been made afterwards.
Q. Did he make a complaint of assault against one of your associate solicitors in December 2004? I think a gentleman by the name of Keith Chan(?).
A. I think it was a bit earlier than that. It was in the summer of 04. He had an argument with Keith, who was a solicitor then employed. As a result of that he made a complaint of assault against Keith to the Central Police Station, and he also got his female assistant, a Miss Sanpanga(?) to complain against Mr Keith -- Mr Chan to the Equal Opportunities Commission for some reason.
Q. Let's not overplay it and let's not go into too much detail. To your knowledge, has he also brought more than one private prosecution in one case against an ICAC officer, in another case I think against staff of the New Zealand Consulate General.
A. So I understand, yes.
Q. Most, if not all of which have been thrown out.
A. I think they've all been thrown out.
Q. Has he at any stage during the last 12 months boasted or bragged to you of a new special relationship that he enjoys with the ICAC?
A. Yes, yes.
Q. Have you heard him referring to the ICAC as 'his boys'?
A. Similar phrases, yes.
Q. Telling you that he's going to have the ICAC 'storm your office'?
A. Oh, yes, yes, I do recall that. 'His friends', I think it was, rather than 'his boys'.
Q. 'His friends'. Has he let you know directly or indirectly that he, himself, is a protected witness under the Witness Protection Ordinance?
A. Am I in a position to answer that, your Honour?
COURT: You may answer that.
A. He hasn't told me in terms but he has made it very obvious to me, to Mr Massie and a number of members of my staff.
Q. Albeit that a person who is a participant in the scheme, if he discloses his participation, himself commits a criminal offence.
A. Yes, he hasn't used the exact words, but he's made it very obvious.
Q. The next few questions I have to ask you are a little distasteful and I'm going to pass over them as quickly as I can. Has Mr Nattrass boasted to you that he has had sexual relationships with three members of your staff and a number of clients?
A. Yes, he has, but I'm not prepared to say who the people are.
Q. Of course not. On Mr N's departure from your firm, did you have cause to examine the desktop computer that was in his use while he was with your firm?
A. Yes, we obtained a forensic report through a forensic expert.
Q. Well, I'm not going to go into any more detail than is absolutely necessary and perhaps we can cut it short by dealing with it in this way, was some 60,000 pornographic pictures found on his computer?
A. Yes.
Q. And do you have reason to believe that he was downloading pornography using the office computer in office hours?
A. Yes, he was. They were the ones that were marked to 'favourites', that somebody had downloaded them onto that site.
Q. And some of them requiring payment of a fee to download.
A. Yes, yes, indeed.
Q. Again, without going into too much graphic detail, the materials, were they downloaded from websites which concern themselves with matters of spanking backsides of - girls?
A. That seemed to be his main interest, yes.
Q. Are you, yourself, aware of intimate relationships that he has had with his own domestic helpers?
A. With two, his last two domestic helpers, yes.
Q. I raised with you a short while ago, the term, 'Walter Mitty', the dream world part of Mr N's personality.
A. M'm.
Q. Has he, to you, boasted of acts of chivalry and bravery that he performed whilst apparently he was in the New Zealand army reserve?
A. Yes, he has, yes.
Q. Did he tell you that he was wounded in action in the jungles of Cambodia when he received gunshot wounds?
A. Yes, he did, yes.
Q. For which he was treated -- apparently airlifted out of Cambodia and treated in the Philippines for gunshot wounds.
A. So he says, yes.
Q. Mentioned in dispatches.
A. So he says, yes.
Q. Has he held himself out to you to be a former law enforcer in the employ of the New Zealand police force?
A. Yes, he expressed himself to have been at one stage a policeman in Auckland, I think.
Q. And has he told you that he personally made the arrests in the 'Rainbow Warrior' incident, which many of us can remember which I think took place in the 1980's?
A. Yes, yes, he did.
Q. That he was the arresting officer in that case.
A. He did tell me that some years ago, yes.
