Man beat homeless woman he blamed for miscarriage tragedy
HUSBAND TOOK LAW INTO OWN HANDS WHEN WIFE LOST BABY AFTER ALLEGED ROBBERY
AN ANGRY husband took the law into his own hands to mete out justice to a homeless woman who allegedly robbed his wife and caused her to miscarry their unborn child.
Kafoo Tung, who lived in Leicester’s Welford Road, was said to have been at the end of his tether by harassment from a number of homeless people, including the alleged robber, who regularly loitered near his home.
His barrister, James Bide-Thomas, told the city’s crown court the vagrants were making the lives of local residents “a misery”.
He claimed the 55-year-old defendant had previously been racially abused and threatened by the woman and her associates, but it was the final straw when his wife miscarried after being robbed at knifepoint by the woman with a male accomplice.
Tung sought out the homeless woman the following day to remonstrate with her, but as he walked off he saw a discarded wooden pole and used it to assault her, said Mr BideThomas.
The victim has since died, although it was not suggested in court that Tung’s assault played any part in her death.
Lucia Harington, prosecuting, said the defendant’s wife reported the robbery at the time, although the details and circumstances had not been verified in time for Tung’s sentencing hearing.
CCTV footage of Tung hitting the woman with the pole in Regent Street, near the junction of Welford Road, was shown in court.
The homeless woman, who dropped her belongings during the incident, was asked by a concerned witness if she wanted an ambulance - which the victim refused before walking off.
Tung pleaded guilty to threatening behaviour with an offensive weapon, on Wednesday, October 20 last year.
He accepted the offence put him in breach of a 10-month suspended jail sentence, for an affray and offensive weapon matter, in 2019, involving him attacking a car with a meat cleaver, causing damage, as the driver tried to flee.
Tung claimed the victim of that offence had almost run his wife over a week earlier.
Mr Bide-Thomas said the defendant was “sorry” for attacking the homeless woman and accepted the incident would have been “frightening” for onlookers.
He added: “There’s a significant background to it and his threatening behaviour was brought about by the behaviour of the person that was threatened.”
The court heard that Tung, a former restaurant worker - who was assisted by a Cantonese interpreter in court - has now left Leicester to live in Edinburgh.
His wife has since gone through a successful pregnancy and given birth, the court was told.
Mr Bide-Thomas said: “For various reasons there isn’t going to be any repetition.”
Sentencing, Recorder Owain Thomas QC said Tung struck the homeless woman “at least three times”.
He added: “She did not need an ambulance.
“You say she’d been racially abusive towards you a week earlier and the day before this incident she was involved in robbing your wife at knifepoint.
“It was said that your wife suffered a miscarriage as a result. The victim and other homeless people in the vicinity were also said to have been causing misery to you and other people who lived in that area.”
The recorder said that despite the background, the defendant was not entitled to take the law into his own hands.
Tung was jailed for a total of seven months.