As part of my series on the criminal trial of Carson Yeung I have put together some information on the people involved in the trial. To begin with, I have concentrated on the sitting Judge, the senior prosecutor involved and the senior defence counsel involved but as witnesses are called and other names come to the fore I will continue to add to this list.

Other articles on the trial can be found here.

The Judge: His Honour, Douglas Yau Tak-Hong

Judge Yau is the judge who will be sitting on this case. He has been a judge within the district court since September 2009, having been a magistrate for seven years prior to that.

He was born in Hong Kong in 1967 and studied for his LLB at the University of London, graduating 1993. He was called to the bar in England and Wales and in Hong Kong in 1994, and worked in private practice between 1995 and 2002.

Judge Yau has sat on numerous cases involving corruption and money laundering previously. He is known for having jailed three corrupt officers from the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in May of this year for perjury. The three officers were convicted of coaching a witness in a HK$100million warrants fraud case.

Prosecution: Kevin Zervos, SC

The senior prosecutor involved is Kevin Zervos, who is Director of Public of Prosecutions in Hong Kong. Born in Australia, he originally practiced law in his homeland and was a specialist in the prosecution of white-collar crime.

Mr Zervos has served in the Hong Kong Department of Justice for the last 20 years, originally starting in the Commercial crime unit before moving up through the ranks to become DPP in March of last year.

Mr Zervos has made a stand against corruption and fraud during his term as DPP and has been involved in many high profile cases such as the Kwok brothers case.

This is to be his one of his last cases as Mr Zervos is due to retire next year and Ming Pao has reported that Zervos will become a High Court Judge on leaving his position as DPP.

Defence: Clive Grossman, SC

Carson’s chief barrister is Clive Grossman. Grossman was born in London and lived in Zimbabwe (whilst still known as Rhodesia) between 1947 and 1983. He gained his LLB from the University of Cape Town, and practiced law in Rhodesia from 1967 to 1983.

He then moved to Hong Kong where after working in the Department of Justice, rising to Deputy DPP he took silk in 1993 and has been in private practice since 1994.

Mr Grossman was involved in the prosecution of former Fijian PM Mahendra Chaudry for money laundering last year and was involved in the aforementioned Kwok brothers trial before being replaced last month.

Grossman was once quoted as saying “An arrested person is, statistically, almost certain to face imprisonment,” which he wrote in the preface to the latest edition of a criminal-law reference book.” This was with regards to the statistic that in Hong Kong, roughly 75% of not-guilty pleas end in a conviction; in England and Wales, that figure is less than 8%

Tags: Carson Yeung, Clive Grossman, Douglas Yau, Kevin Zervos, The Trial