Hong Kong pop star's appeal attempt thwarted by court
HONG KONG April 3 - Hong Kong's top court has refused to let Asian
pop music star Nicholas Tse appeal his conviction for having
someone act as the driver of a car he crashed two years ago, an
official said Saturday.
Tse has already served his sentence - 240 hours of community
service - but he tried to appeal the conviction to clear his
name.
The singing and acting idol crashed his Ferrari in March 2002. No
one was injured in the accident, but Tse was convicted of
conspiracy to pervert the course of justice after agreeing to let
his chauffeur, Shing Kwok-ting, take the blame for the crash, even
though he was behind the wheel.
During the trial, it emerged that Tse quickly called Shing to ask
for help after the crash. Shing said he told Tse to leave the
scene, and that he would claim he was the driver to police.
On Friday, Tse's lawyer argued the 23-year-old star was wrongly
convicted after the trial judge failed to properly evaluate
inconsistencies in the chauffeur's testimony.
Shing pleaded guilty to conspiracy and served a four-month prison
sentence, then testified against Tse.
Tse's lawyer attacked Shing's credibility, saying there had been a
discrepancy between what he said during his early testimony and a
later cross-examination, the South China Morning Post
reported.
``The credibility and reliability of Shing was crucial to the
prosecution's case,'' Tse's lawyer, Cheng Huan, was quoted by the
newspaper as telling the court.
But the Court of Final Appeal rejected the arguments and refused to
let Tse to go ahead with the appeal, court spokeswoman Glenis Liong
said.
The son of veteran movie stars Patrick Tse Yin and Deborah Li, Tse
began performing at age 15 and quickly gained popularity with his
music and acting talent, as well as a bad-boy image. - AP
