The High Court has dismissed a trainee police inspector’s appeals against two indecent-assault convictions and a total 10-week prison sentence, ordering him to begin serving the term immediately. He had been on bail while challenging both his convictions and sentence.
The convictions arose from separate incidents involving female officers. In November 2023, officer Y said she was touched while bent over tying her shoelace at the Hong Kong Police College’s parade ground. On 9 September 2024, officer X said she felt an object sweep across her buttocks while she checked a government mobile phone in a corridor at Yuen Long Police Station.
The appellant argued that equipment he was carrying might have caused accidental contact. Acting High Court judge Kathie Cheung rejected that explanation in relation to X, finding there was enough space in the corridor to rule out contact from his clothing or equipment. She accepted X’s evidence that the object felt warm and like part of a body rather than a hard item.
For the incident involving Y, Cheung held that the trial court had a sufficient basis to exclude accidental contact by the appellant’s rifle. If the rifle or its handle had touched Y as he passed her, he would have noticed, the judgment said.
The trial court acquitted him of a separate common-assault charge involving a third female officer, Z. That charge concerned an alleged incident at Yuen Long Police Station on 2 May 2024 and was not among the convictions challenged in the appeal.
Cheung also rejected the appeal against sentence. She found the offending serious enough to require imprisonment, saying a fine or community-service order would not adequately reflect its seriousness. She rejected the argument that the trial court had placed too much weight on the appellant’s status as a police officer, holding that misconduct by an officer could seriously damage and betray public trust in the Hong Kong Police Force.