Occupy protester Ken Tsang in court for trial of officers accused of assaulting him
Admissibility of video showing alleged beating still point of dispute in case
Pro-democracy activist Ken Tsang Kin-chiu was in court for the first time on Monday morning, for the trial of seven policemen accused of assaulting him.
But Tsang, having been jeered by a scattered, placard-waving crowd, left shortly after his arrival as the District Court needed more time before calling him to the witness stand.
Tsang was allegedly “unlawfully and maliciously” assaulted by Chief Inspector Wong Cho-shing, 48, Senior Inspector Lau Cheuk-ngai, 29, Detective Sergeant Pak Wing-bun, 42, and constables Lau Hing-pui, 38, Chan Siu-tan, 31, Kwan Ka-ho, 32, and Wong Wai-ho, 36, outside a pump station near Lung Wui Road in Admiralty during the Occupy protests on October 15, 2014.
It is alleged that Chan also assaulted Tsang later on, in the interview room of Central Police Station.
All the men deny one joint count of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, while Chan denies a further charge of common assault.
The pro-democracy activist turned up at the court building in Wan Chai at about 10:15am amid jeering by a small group of police supporters, who had not been seen since they staged a demonstration on the first day of the trial on Wednesday last week.
But the crowd of dozens thinned as soon as it started raining.
When Tsang arrived, one demonstrator rushed at him, but was stopped by police officers. Another hurled verbal abuse as Tsang as he went through the door.
The court had heard since Wednesday the prosecutor’s application to have a string of news footage admitted as evidence. The videos are from television stations TVB, ATV and Now TV and newspaper Apple Daily, the court heard earlier.
Prosecutors argued the footage showed events leading to the alleged assault on Tsang, but defence lawyers contested that, saying the footage lacked traces of origin and proof that it had not been tampered with.
Testifying on Monday, news production manager of TVB David Wong Kwong-hoi was asked about his findings after he compared the footage the police downloaded from TVB’s website with the one the station kept in its database.
Apart from some scenes which were cut because the camera was blocked, he said: “Basically it’s not edited at all.”
But he had not compared their audio tracks, the court heard.
The trial continues before Judge David Dufton on Monday afternoon.
