Two senior judges had advised a retired head of surgery at the University of Hong Kong that he could use his discretion as to whether to report a staff member's embezzlement of HK$2.67 million from a trust fund, the District Court heard yesterday.
The defendant, John Wong, 71, submitted his legal friends' names on a piece of paper to trial judge Susana D'Almada Remedios, after she ruled he had a case to answer.
She took the precaution of keeping the judges' identities from the public - as requested by the defence so as not to embarrass them - by folding the paper before passing it to the prosecution.
Wong, who is accused of covering up the embezzlement and of using department funds to pay a domestic helper, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of misconduct in a public office and two of false accounting.
In early 2007, his former subordinate, June Chan Sau-hung, was found to have stolen the money from the Skills Development Centre, set up in 1995 by HKU to provide training to doctors and medical staff.
Wong chose not to report her to the police or the university.