THE master of a junk that collided two years ago with a passenger ferry in Victoria Harbour leading to the deaths of two men, yesterday walked free - a decision condemned by a survivor as a ''frustrating, infuriating insult''.
Ms Marion Bourke, whose close friend Eddie Donoghue died in hospital after losing both legs in the February 1991 Lunar New Year tragedy, said last night: ''Personally, it's both frustrating and infuriating when someone you love dies horribly in an accident that was clearly caused by human error, and nobody is properly brought to book for it.'' Deputy Judge Jennings imposed a $10,000 fine on New Zealand businessman Ian Robert Watson, 55, after he had pleaded guilty to endangering life at sea. Watson was at the helm of the junk Long Boat when it collided with the Hongkong and Yau Ma Tei Ferry (HYF) Man Loy.
The Man Loy's master Mr Chui Yung-kan, 53, who had faced a similar charge, plus two counts of manslaughter, was acquitted of all charges by a jury earlier this month.
Ms Bourke - commenting on Donoghue's death and that of architect John McDowell, 34, whose body washed ashore 11 days after the tragedy - said: ''HYF are let off scot free and the junk owner gets a $10,000 fine - it's an insult to the two lives that were destroyed that night.
''Vengeance is not the issue; it is more about the dangers of allowing deaths such as these two go unresolved and unpunished.'' She said it was ''a sad indictment on Hongkong's legal system that two years after that accident justice is neither done nor seen to be done''.
Watson left the court after the sentence flanked by his legal team, refusing to discuss the case.
Asked if he feared civil suits that may be brought, he said: ''I have nothing to say to you at all.'' Later, as he sat at the bar of the Old China Hand, the Wan Chai tavern he owns, Watson again declined to comment.