Fu Shuang Lo, now aged 63, was granted bail after his arrest in 2022. Photo: Albert McKnight.
A violent fight between staff in a restaurant’s kitchen escalated to one of the men slashing the other with a meat cleaver before the pair crashed into a dining area filled with customers.
Fu Shuang Lo was arrested over the incident at the Orient Kitchen in Weston Creek on 12 December, 2022, then was spared being sent to jail when he was sentenced by the ACT Supreme Court on Wednesday (28 May).
He and his victim were working in the kitchen at lunchtime when they started arguing, possibly due to a miscommunication about customers’ orders, although it was not clear what started the argument, Justice Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson said in her published decision.
Lo pointed his finger at the victim, who pushed it away and then hit Lo in the face. He responded by throwing food, punching the victim and grabbing a 30 cm-long Chinese-style meat cleaver and using it to slash the victim’s arm.
When the victim grabbed his hand that was holding the cleaver, Lo repeatedly hit him over the head with a stainless-steel container before also slashing the victim’s hand.
The victim managed to take the cleaver away, so Lo bit him on the arm and repeatedly punched him in the head to prevent him from using it.
“As the offender and the victim continued to struggle with each other, the two of them crashed through the kitchen door into the dining area, which was no doubt alarming for the would-be customers inside the restaurant,” Justice Loukas-Karlsson said.
Police were called to Orient Kitchen in Weston Creek on 12 December, 2022. Photo: Stephen Ning.
The victim was taken to hospital with cuts to his head, shoulder and thumb as well as a bite mark on his arm.
Lo, who suffered bruising, a grazed lip and a loose tooth, was arrested and went on to plead guilty to a charge of recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm.
“He reported that he reacted quickly because [the victim] is physically larger and younger, and he believed he had to act in self-defence,” a forensic psychologist said.
Justice Loukas-Karlsson found his offence occurred in the circumstances of “excessive self-defence”.
She said while the victim hit Lo first, Lo responded by punching the victim and then grabbed the cleaver, which was “an instrument capable of inflicting serious harm”.
She also said Lo escalated the situation, while the victim inflicted minimal force and his subsequent actions were consistent with an attempt to avoid further injury.
Lo, who was assisted by a Cantonese interpreter in court, was born and raised in China before arriving in Australia in 1992.
The now-63-year-old claimed the victim bullied him at the restaurant and he retaliated due to his built-up frustration from this treatment.
But he also said he felt guilty and was sorry he had hurt the victim.
Justice Loukas-Karlsson was satisfied he had shown remorse and said his diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder reduced his moral culpability for the offence.
He was convicted and sentenced to 15 months’ jail to be served by an intensive corrections order, a community-based sentence, which ends in August 2026.
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