3. The Judge sentenced the applicant to life imprisonment on the murder convictions and to a term of nine years’ imprisonment on the manslaughter conviction.
4. By notice of application dated 16 December 2010, the applicant now seeks leave to appeal against his convictions for murder. By a letter to the court dated 8 August 2011, the applicant sought to raise an additional ground of appeal and also requested that he be given a determinate sentence of imprisonment.
5. Legal aid has been granted to the applicant in respect of the appeal against conviction. Mr Andrew Bruce SC, counsel for the applicant, attended at the hearing to assist the court, for which we are grateful, but did not advance any ground of appeal.
6. At the conclusion of the hearing, we dismissed the application for leave to appeal against conviction. Insofar as the applicant sought a determinate sentence of imprisonment, we treated that as an application for leave to appeal against sentence and dismissed that application. We now give our reasons for those decisions.
The facts
7. The four victims named in the indictment were all members of one family consisting of a married couple and their two infant daughters. The father was named Tam Shing-fai, the mother Tong Yan-yee and the two daughters, who were respectively aged 10 and 7, were named Tam Hui-man and Tam Hui-ying. Mr Tam and Madam Tong were the victims named in counts 1 and 2, Tam Hui-man was the victim in count 3 and Tam Hui-ying was the victim named in count 4.
