Judge in Occupy activist’s assault trial should have pressed media to hand over video footage, court hears
Lawyer for one of seven convicted policemen argues authenticity at stake
The judge who convicted seven police officers of assaulting pro-democracy activist Ken Tsang Kin-chiu during the 2014 Occupy protest should have pressed the media to hand over original copies of key video footage at trial even at the expense of treading upon press freedom, an appeal court was told on Thursday.
Footage capturing the assault became incriminating evidence and was already the subject of an earlier judicial review. A High Court judge had ruled in favour of the press, saying they were not obliged to provide original copies to the prosecutors.
But on Thursday Tim Owen QC, for Chief Inspector Wong Cho-shing, said without the raw copies, it was not possible for his client to challenge their authenticity. The downloaded versions were used by the prosecution as key evidence during the trial.
Last Hong Kong policeman in jail for Ken Tsang assault released on bail
Owen said District Court Judge David Dufton should have “taken the initiative” to request the original footage and photographs from various media outlets, including broadcaster TVB and newspaper Apple Daily.
“The procedure adopted in this case has problems,” he said, adding that it would be an important legal issue for the Court of Appeal to address as it could have a bearing on future cases that relied on press coverage as court evidence.
The British barrister was seeking permission to lodge an appeal against the inspector’s conviction and sentence.
Wong was convicted in February of one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm on Tsang on October 15, 2014, and sentenced to two years in jail.